Captivated
by AeonXBorealis
Summary: Alejandro is the new student at Cress High School. He forms a crush on the queen bee, Heather who's dating Justin. When Alejandro has to tutor Heather in Spanish, it leads to something more.
1. Chapter 1

-1

:Alejandro:

My mom got a new job in a little town called Cress, so I'm going to have to attend a brand new high school. In no way am I concerned that I'm going to fit in just fine. As a matter of fact, this is quite refreshing for me. I see it as a chance to start over and really get what I want out of a high school experience.

I'm excited about being the "new kid". I'm going to "rock all of their worlds", per se. Maybe I'll even meet a few _mucha bonita _girls, be the toast of the town. Yeah, it's going to be quite _divertido_.

Currently, I'm driving my little rust bucket to school. So, it's not the classiest car in the world, but it _is _a truck and, technically speaking, a classic, actually and in pretty good condition. There are a lot of girls that are into cars, so I may just impress a few of them with this little number. As soon as I park my car and climb out, I'm seeing quite a crowd spread out across the campus.

It's not much different from my old high school: there's the same types of cliques, the same silly hierarchy of popular to un-popular. This just makes my task that much easier. I just casually walking around, smiling and looking. In order to really make a sufficient first move, I must be observant and logical in the method I go about doing it in.

When I enter the school, my originally incognito status is gone. A blond _chica_ approaches me, biting her lip and looking at me with her light blue eyes. She's pretty cute.

"Hi, I'm Bridgette," she says, extending her hand. "You must be the new kid?"

"Pleasure to meet you," I reply, flashing her my million dollar smile. "I'm Alejandro."

She giggles a little, getting flustered. It really is charming, making me wonder if she already has a boyfriend. Even if she does, I wouldn't be able to resist flirting.

"Where are you from?" she asks, trying to stop giggling.

"All over the world," I reply. "None of the many girls I've seen are as beautiful as you, though." For extra emphasis, I wink at her and watch her face turn completely red.

That's when a buff, blond guy in a pink buttoned-up shirt shows up. He looks mellow, nonchalantly adjusting the cowboy hat on his head, but I can see the flames in his eyes. Someone's jealous. _Tiene celos_.

"Hey, welcome to Cress," he says, gritting his teeth and trying to keep his cool. "I see you met _my girlfriend _Bridgette. I'm Geoff."

"Nice to meet you," I say, looking innocent. "I'm Alejandro."

"_Geoff_..." Bridgette tries to be subtle about poking him in the ribs with her elbow, but I'm fully aware of what is going on even though my demeanor may express otherwise. That's the best part about being an actor: your visage reveals one thing, while an entirely different thing is occurring in your brain.

"Yeah...welcome," he says, rubbing his arm where Bridgette elbowed him. "Bridge and I are heading to the caf...You can come, too, if you want."

He seems quite reluctant about the last part of what he just said. Part of me is tempted to take him up on his offer just to further grind his gears, but I decide against it, considering that I'll probably get more chances in the future. I just smile at him. "No thank you."

"See ya around, then," he says, putting an arm around Bridgette's shoulders and leading her elsewhere.

"Bye...Alejandro," she says, blushing and giving a little wave.

I wink at her and smile, watching her face turn a deeper shade of red before she turns back around. Then they're part of the big crowd again, leaving me alone.

I'm most certainly enjoying being the "newbie" so far. I decide to head to my new locker and figure that out before I continue with my tomfoolery. As entertaining as it is to ruffle the other students' feathers, I probably should take care of the technical aspects now so that I don't have to attend to such matters later. Promptness is my kind of style.

Casually, I walk around scouting the numbers heading the lockers. Along the way I do happen to notice that some of the girls are checking me out, but I pretend that I didn't notice. That little trick will make the _chicas _approach me first.

It's not long before I find my locker and put my backpack and other belongings inside it. That's when I notice a clock on the wall a few feet above my locker. Unfortunately, there's only mere minutes left before my first class starts, so I don't really have anymore time to look around.

Besides, the hallway is clogged with students, so it'd take quite a bit of time to get through them and to another location in the school anyway. I've been in bigger schools with many more students and this school is quite minute compared to those, but still, that's my deduction from applying a mote of logical thinking to my current scenario.

Suddenly, it feels like there's more students boxing me in than there were before. There's a wide swath of empty space in the middle of the hallway and girls are screaming like they are in the presence of a celebrity. A couple, that I can barely see over the heads of my peers, comes walking down the hall. There's a guy with dark hair, wearing sunglasses and smirking, waving at the crowd and blowing kisses.

Not that I have much room to talk, but that's quite an arrogant display. My guess is that this guy is a local celebrity or some sort of small scale celebrity. Even those not really in the higher up hierarchy of fame have swelled heads and still get quite an enthusiastic reception by those who know their name. At least, that theory is proven by whoever this is.

That's when I notice the girl walking beside him, presumably his girlfriend. She's just as arrogant as her partner with a ferocious attitude to match, yelling at the others to move out of the way. One moment, she's smiling and waving, the next she's yelling. Nobody seems to question her self-declared authority, perhaps just because she is attached to an iconic figure?

She's filled with so much fire and anger, and I'm instantly drawn to her charcoal black eyes. I can practically see the flames rising and falling in her eyes. Then there's her long, raven hair, the way she struts and holds her head so high. I have come across very few girls with that sort of self-confidence. She's a _mujer bella_. Too magnificent to be simply a high school girl.

As she passes, I can feel my heart skipping a beat in my chest. I don't even know who she is, yet she already has a piece of my heart. I must learn her name, get to know who she is. My favorite type of _mujer _is the aggressive, beautiful, and self-confident type. She more than qualifies. If I can truly make a prognosis of a person from seeing her for only a few scant seconds, she is the epitome of aggressive, beautiful, and self-confident women.

I've been to almost every country, lived all over the world, know several different languages. I've even met a multitude of different girls, but none of my experiences or even those girls has had quite as much of a resonating effect as this raven haired girl seems to have on me.

Through all of my classes today alone, she keeps invading my thoughts, at least twice an hour. I've received a couple of notes and been flirted with quite a bit today and I sat at a table crowded completely with the X chromosome, but I was just running through the motions. It is very unlike me to be so out-of-place and distracted, but I am.

Most of the day, my head seems to be caught in some sort of cloud and the cloud doesn't even fade in the slightest until my Spanish class. I chose this class since pretty much all of the languages taught here...I already know and this one just seemed like an easy, cakewalk kind of class. Well, for me anyway.

I would've been in a stupor through this class, too, but that's when I realize that..._she _is in this class, too. _Esta ella. _She's so..._bellísima. _

I can't take my eyes away from her. I watch as she walks into the classroom, sits down at the desk right next to me. Then she's looking at me, smiling and I don't know why. My mind, which seems to have been struck by Cupid's bow, is entertaining way too many fantasies right now. I just lean back in the desk chair and smile at her, hoping that she's as captivated by me as I am by her.

"So...you're the new guy, huh?" she asks, raising her eyebrows.

"_Sí_," I reply, trying to be clever. "_Me llamo Alejandro_."

"No Spanish," she says, rolling her eyes. "I'm Heather."

"Pleasure to meet you." Alright, so now I know her name. I'm so tempted to kiss her hand, but I hold back, seeing that venomous, yet sexy glare.

_Heather_. The name repeats in my mind, over and over again.

"Okay..." She turns around and leaves me wondering whether or not she'll say more.

That's when the teacher enters the classroom. He folds his arms behind his back, clears his throat and silences the entire classroom. For awhile he just goes over the typical, boring protocol. All of his words just sound like background noise.

I'm staring at Heather the entire time. She isn't paying attention either; she's texting on her cell phone under her desk.

I love her hair, her eyes, the way she speaks, the way she frowns. Everything about her captivates me and I don't really know much about her. I _must_ find out more. Soon.

"Why are you staring at me?" she asks.

I'm pulled back to reality. She's staring at me, noticing that I was staring at her.

"You...have lettuce stuck in your teeth," I say, fumbling for an excuse.

Then I run out of the classroom without looking back.


	2. Chapter 2

-2

I may have been excited about a new start and re-inventing myself, but things aren't going according to plan at all.

I'm so frustrated. From what I can figure, I have a "crush" on Heather. Every time she passes in the hallway, I feel tingles run down my spine and my heart beat picks up. Of course, I've had crushes before, but none of them have ever felt like..._this_.

I can't have a crush on her. She's supposed to have a crush on _me_, not the other way around like it is.

"Hey Alejandro..." A cute redhead's looking at me, giggling. "Want a sip of my soda?"

"Sure, _señorita_," I say, obliging her by taking the cup and idly drinking out of it.

I end up regretting it. The redhead has poor taste in soft drinks, but she seems happy and I smile at her, to keep her smiling. All of the other girls at the table are smiling, too. Apparently, for the past week or so, I've made a habit out of sitting at a table filled with girls. Or rather, they seem to sit wherever I sit. It's usually the same group, too.

Normally, I'd be quite thrilled to be surrounded by such lovely ladies on a daily basis, but I can't help looking in the direction of Heather's table. She's the queen bee of Cress High School, sitting at the most coveted spot in the cafeteria: at the very center. I've seen others gazing longingly over their shoulders at that table. I've heard some of the _chicas _at my table talking about wanting to sit at that table.

Apparently, if a person sits at that table, they're at the very top of this school's hierarchy. Why am I not surprised? This is the same kind of infrastructure as many other schools I've attended. At quite a number of those, I actually ended up in the popular crowd.

For the record, I was probably the most treacherous and deceptive out of anyone in any of those crowds. Compared to those football players and cheerleaders everybody here despises and wants so badly to be, I'd be a piranha.

I keep staring directly at Heather, just looking and looking and looking. It's as if my eyes will fall out at any moment and I won't be able to see her anymore if I don't. My heart keeps pumping and I feel my stomach clench and knot whenever I notice her holding hands with Justin.

Her boyfriend is Justin, a male model that has all of the girls here drooling all over themselves. I'm not jealous of him _at all_. As a matter of fact, I could crush him like a little bug. What I can't stand is that she, the girl that fills my dreams, is with _him_. She could be with...well, me.

"Hey, Alejandro...?" My thoughts are interrupted and the redhead's staring at me again.

"What is on your mind?" I ask, quickly slipping back into my usual demeanor.

All of the girls at the table are staring fixedly at us, giggling, smiling. I'm getting the feeling that something is about to happen and from the way the redhead's cheeks are glowing pale red, I think I know exactly what.

"Will you..." She looks so nervous. "Will you...?"

"Ask him already, Judy!" One of her friends next to her buts her roughly with her elbow.

Judy looks away. She is so shy, nervous, and scared; I know exactly what she's trying to do. This has happened before...I know how to let girls down gently. Yes, there may be some tears, but that can be expected from such a sensitive soul.

"Are you trying to ask me out?" I say as gently as I can, watching her nod silently. Then she looks up at me with these two big, shining eyes.

Before I can say anything else, one of the other girls pounds her fist on the table. "I'm sorry Judy, but I'm not gonna sit and wait an eternity for you to actually _ask _this guy out!" she yelled. "He needs a more aggressive girl, like me!"

The tension is quickly mounting. This girl walks around the table, her fists clenched and goes nose to nose with Judy, glaring. "I think you should back down..." She looks fierce. "_He's mine_."

"What the hell's wrong with you?" another girl at the table cries, pulling the other one away from Judy. "You agreed you wouldn't do this, Gina!"

"I agree with Gina!" a girl in pink sneers, standing up. "I didn't get _any _say in which one of us got to ask Alejandro out first! You told Judy she could without asking _anyone else _at the freaking mall yesterday!"

The girls all scoot out of their seats and walk up to one another, glaring and snarling. It faintly reminds me of a special I saw on the nature channel. They all start yelling at each other, catching the attention of everyone in the cafeteria. Several guys are cheering and whooping, knowing that a cat fight is about to break out.

Before I can even blink, one of the girls has tackled the other to the ground and is pulling and tugging at her hair. The cheering has turned into a steady chant: "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!"

Everything is happening so fast. A group of people has manifested out of nowhere and pushed me out of the way. Even if I did want to intervene, I can't now, due to the several people in-between me and the girls. The cluster of people is so dense and packed together like sardines, howling and cheering like the ravenous spectators at the Coliseum in ancient Rome.

"Hey...Alejandro, right?"

I turn around and there's Heather, smiling and narrowing her eyes in a cat-like way.

"Hello Heather." Her presence makes my heart beat like a congo drum.

"Are those girls fighting over _you_?" she asks and I can feel my stomach turning for some reason.

"What makes you suspect such a thing?"

"They keep screaming your name..." she says, walking past me with one hand on her hip. "And they're at each other's throats."

"I suppose..."

"The last cat fight that happened at Cress was between me and another pathetic girl over Justin..." she says, looking sinister. "I won."

I'm both attracted to and unnerved by this open display of hostility Heather's giving me. Her teeth are bared and pointed like canines. The flames in the pupils of her eyes are full fledged conflagrations.

"Why would you tell me something like that?" I know I sound so clueless, but my head is so unusually vacant right now.

"I'm wondering what all the fuss is about," she says, walking up to me. "I've been hearing quite a bit about you for the past week. You've made quite an impression already..."

"I'm not surprised." I smirk at her, my head finally clearing. "I have a tendency to be quite impressive."

Heather's eyebrows raise. I can see the "Touche" expression subtly engraved on her face, even though it isn't prominently showing. I can't help feeling like I'm a piranha, she's a shark, and I'm intimidating her. So much of me wants to make a move, but I'm holding back, seeing the fury and tenseness in the way she walks, scrutinizing me as she plans her next move.

"Do you honestly think you've got what it takes to be bigger than Justin?" she challenges me. "You may be a piece of eye candy, but that can only take you so far..._Alejandro_."

I love the venom she spits into saying my name. "Oh...I'm his worst nightmare, _chica_," I say, grinning at her. "There's _much _more to me than anyone's seen so far. Especially _you_."

That seems to knock her off balance a little. Just to heckle her a bit more, I wink before turning and walking away.

"Wait just a second!" she says, grabbing my wrist.

I let her turn me around, even though I could very easily pull away. Her face is a deep shade of red and I can practically see the smoke tendrils curtailing out of her ears.

"Yes?"

She's so furious she can't even speak. Incoherent mumbles come out of her mouth and then she lets go of my wrist. I just stand still and smile casually at her. When her face returns to it's normal color, she stares heatedly at me, her eyes narrowed.

"I like angry women," I say. "They're so gorgeous when they act furious. It truly brings out the fire and brimstone in their eyes..."

That colors her face red again and she turns, stomping away. I turn away from her, smiling and feeling strangely victorious. That was more of a territorial argument than any sort of flirtatious banter, but it seems strange to me to imagine Heather as being the shy and blushing type. This seems way more natural.

I have a feeling that I'll be seeing much more of Heather soon.

That's when the girls from the group at my table come walking up to me. All of them look like a mess: smeared make-up, ripped up clothes. Yet they're all smiling. The shy redhead walks up to me and smirks uncharacteristically.

"We all got a week's suspension for fighting over _you_," she declares. "But...we all realized how stupid it was to fight over a guy! I don't care if you look like a male model...I'm so. Over. You"-she pokes her finger in my face for emphasis on each word-"I'm _never _going to let a guy like you get in-between me and my friends ever again. So..._adios_, Alejandro."

I watch as she walks away with her friends and they all start chattering to one another as animatedly as they had been before the cat fight.

The X chromosome is so strange. It may be true that I understand them to a certain extent, but I don't think I'll ever understand them completely. A _mujer _can be so unpredictable. For instance, one day she can be shy and nervous, then the next day full of confidence and arrogant.

That little speech about how her life is so much more _bueno _without me was unnecessary, though. I'm already fully aware that every girl is better off without me around.

In English class, we're doing a stupid partner project and, much to my misfortune, my partner is the rotund, _grande, estupido, _Owen.

He's the most cheerful and oblivious guy I've ever met. Everything about him...absolutely irritates me. I mean _everything_. And then there's the fact that he has the audacity to consider me his _amigo_ and gave me the revolting nickname "Al". My name is not that hard to pronounce!

_¡Mi nombre es Alejandro Burromuerto! **Alejandro Burromuerto.**_

"Hey Al!" There he is, smiling and holding his hand up for a high five.

"Hello Owen." I oblige him by giving him a high five. I'm just going to pretend to be polite so as not to set the big lug off and perhaps gain _un enemigo_, though pathetic, that I'd prefer not to contend with.

"I heard there was a cat fight over you in the cafeteria!" Owen laughed. "Nice going, Al! You're quite the ladies' man, huh?"

"Yes, I suppose that I am..." I say absently.

Not for the millionth time, my thoughts stray to Heather. I wonder what her hair feels like, what her hands feel like, what her breath smells like. The poetic side of my brain keeps indulging in my comparison to the two of us as two of the most ferocious aquatic animals known to man: the shark and piranha; I imagine a piranha chasing a shark, playfully nipping at it's tail fin...

"AL!" I realize I've been daydreaming. "Could you give me some advice on how to get a girl...?"

I look sideways at Owen, frowning. My daydream may have been extremely bizarre, but its entertainment value was much higher than that of being in reality with this big lug.

"Who would the lucky _chica _be?" I feel like barfing when I say that.

"She's the most beautiful girl in the world!" Owen sighs, his eyes sparkling. "She has long red hair and...she's just amazing. I know she likes me since we made out one time in the back of my dad's truck one time during the summer"-_Too much information_.-"but...I don't know if I should ask her out or not...I'm kinda scared..."

"What should I do?" he adds, looking like a pathetic, lovesick puppy.

I sigh. Most _hombres _seem to be lovesick, drooling puppies anymore. Maybe they just don't get that if you want the girl, you make the girl want _you_.

"Romance her," I reply. "Flirt with her, ask her what she enjoys to do and do that. Listen to her, make her feel like a queen. You'll know when the moment is right to ask her-"

"Could you slow down, please?" Owen pulls out a piece of notebook paper. "I wanna write all of this down!"


	3. Chapter 3

-3

So, here I am. Sitting in Spanish class. A day after the incident in the cafeteria.

Heather may have decided to sit next to me, but she won't even look at me. She's glaring at her desk top, squeezing her pencil like a boa constrictor squeezes its victims. I look away from her and look down at the piece of notebook paper in front of me.

I don't make it blatantly apparent, but I have a very artistic soul. I can sing; I can dance; I can draw and paint. My drawing skills are extremely admirable, considering the fact that I'm a natural born artist _and_ I've been drawing since the age of five. Looking down at my notebook paper, I make a few more idle swipes at it with the tip of my graphite pencil.

Apparently, Heather is my biggest artistic muse right now...I've been spending all day sketching a picture of her. It's almost photo-realistic. Most artists create pictures of their lady loves smiling or looking happy, but I've made a picture of her frowning, tried to capture those raging fires that hide in her pupils. Truly, this lady, _esta mujer_, is at her most beautiful when she's angry.

"You have a quiz over the Spanish subjunctive tomorrow," says the teacher at the front of the class. The rest of what he says just fades out and becomes background noise to me.

I tune the rest of the world out, focusing on my drawing. I actually try shading a bit, tweaking a few details every now and then. For some reason I feel like this picture needs to be perfect. As perfect as a sketch on notebook paper can be, that is. Right now, I really wish I had better paper to work with, but I suppose I'll just have to make do for now.

Then I feel a light tap on my shoulder and look up. The teacher's standing over me. Instinctively, I take my art and flip it over to hide my picture. Why I did it, I don't know, but I'm feeling extremely protective of it. Nobody can look at it but me.

"I've called your name several times now, Alejandro," he says testily, touching the bridge of his nose. "You seem very distracted today. You better study tonight, because I wouldn't want the best student in my class so far to fail..."

He smiles after that. I'm not surprised to hear that I'm the top student in class. I usually am the star student or at least one of the ones in the top percentile. Also, I _am_ a native Spanish speaker. Spanish was my first language and English came next.

"You know Heather, right?" he says, stepping aside.

She's standing next to him, looking very peeved, her arms folded haughtily. Yes, I know Heather as an acquaintance and personally, I'd like to be much more than that with her.

"Heather's grades in this class so far haven't been very satisfactory. And I don't understand why. From her past school record, it shows that she's a very brilliant student," he says. "Honor roll all through her freshman and sophomore years."

"_Hello_!" Heather cries. "I'm _right __**here**_!"

"I wouldn't want her honor roll status to end, so I was thinking..." He shuffled from foot to foot, smiling thoughtfully. "Maybe if you tutored her a little, her grades would improve."

Heather's eyes widened and I could see the utter indignation on her face.

My heart takes off in my chest like a sky rocket. If I were to tutor Heather, it would mean an opportunity to get to know her better, to get closer to her even.

"Ummm...I'm not being tutored by _him_!" she cried, pointing at me.

I smile and wink at her, just to see her reaction. Just as expected, she shakes with rage and grits her teeth at me.

"You don't have a choice," the teacher says, folding his arms behind his back. "I already contacted your parents and they agreed with me that you need a tutor."

Heather sighed. "Can you at least get someone else to tutor me? Like, I'd prefer to be tutored by that ner-I mean, Harold than _him_."

_Ouch_. That comment actually kind of stung a little. Maybe she really does dislike me...but I can change that. I suppose I'll just have to change it by getting to know her through an activity other than tutoring.

"Stop being so rude!" he snapped. "Or I'll give you a detention...Alejandro, despite Heather's rudeness, would you tutor her?"

"I'd be happy to," I reply, acting all gentlemanly and charming. It just irks Heather that much more.

"Then it's settled," he says, clapping his hands. "You two need to work out a schedule to meet up...maybe today? You both need to study for the quiz..." The teacher trailed off in what he was saying as he turned and walked back to his desk.

I stand up and watch as Heather closes her eyes and tries to suppress a scream. She's really angry. As beautiful as she looks angry, I can feel a pang run through me, feel my heart strings snap. I don't think I'll get anywhere near her with the tactic I used yesterday. As a matter of fact...I'm not quite sure what to do now.

Then I remember the advice I gave to that fat lug Owen in English yesterday. The words echo in my mind and it feels natural that I should follow my own advice.

Tentatively, I pick up the piece of paper and look at it, then I pick it up and walk over to Heather. Her eyes open and she gives me this bored, uninterested look in a poor attempt to cover up how angry she really is.

"Heather..." I lift up the paper and turn it around so that she can see my art.

She looks at it for a long moment, her eyes widen and then she starts glaring at me again.

"You really want to piss me off, don't you?" she asks, talking through clenched teeth. "You really are an ass-"

I decide to just be completely honest here, an act that is very rare for me. "No. I drew this because I...Anger seems to be a key part of your personality and...it's beautiful. You're very beautiful, Heather-" I stop myself before I can say anything more embarrassing. It's too early to really express how I feel and that little fact frustrates me enough that I've wanted to punch walls.

Heather looks at me, confusion fluttering across her face for a brief second. Then she almost smiles, but it turns upside down into a frown. And then she turns and stomps away from me, silently and in a huff.

"Meet me at the library after school?" I call after her.

No reply.

I collect my books and follow her out of the Spanish classroom, wanting to say more, but restraining myself. As soon as she's gone, I lean against the wall outside and look at my picture.

The hallway is deserted. Everybody's in their classes by now.

I hug the picture to my chest and sigh, letting myself indulge in a brief moment of showing my uncontrollable feelings.

_Pienso que_...I think that...I'm in love...

I sit in the Cress Library at a table with an open Spanish text book next to me. I'm looking at it, but not really paying attention to what it says.

Part of me is really hoping that Heather shows up and I'm just sitting here at the off chance that she will. It's making my head spin, my heart pound, and I'm hating the part of me that's saying she won't show up.

"Hiya Al!" The table shakes and when I look up, there's Owen.

Both of his huge, meaty hands are on top of the table and he's smiling stupidly at me. This time he has company: a redhaired girl in green with a smile way too big for her face. The way her pupils keep darting around like pin balls is greatly unnerving me and all of my instincts are telling me to get up and leave.

"Hello...Owen," I say, trying to keep my composure as the girl with him starts gnawing on Owen's arm.

"Your advice worked!" Owen says, laughing. "I just wanted to say thank you! This is Izzy, by the way. Izzy, this is Al."

Warily, I look over at Izzy...That's when she leaps up onto the table top, knocking my book away and howling like a wolf. Then she kneels at my eye level. "Oh...so you're Al? Owen won't stop talking about you!" Izzy laughed. "You're his best friend from what he's been telling me!"

I back up a little and my eyes widen. _Best friend?_

It's bad enough that we have to be partners in English, but I'm most certainly _not _this guy's best friend. I'd rather jump off of a cliff before being his best friend. I've smelled so many of his atrocious scents from his burping and farting, put up with his blatant stupidity. How much more torture must I endure?

"Nice to meet you, Izzy," I say, pushing her away as she tries to lean in and sniff my arm pit. "But if you'll excuse me, I'm waiting for somebody-"

"Ooh!" Owen's eyes narrow. "Al's got a study date! Go Al!"

"No, no, I'm just tutoring a fellow student," I tell Owen, wishing he'd just go away.

"What's her name?" Owen asks, nudging me with his elbow.

"Hey Owen!" Izzy's licking her nose with her tongue.

"That is _so cool_!" Now he's trying to do it.

I'm shuddering now. Izzy is _mucho loco_, to put things lightly. She and Owen are a perfect match, a perfect match that I _do not _want to be around if I can manage it.

Since Owen and his lady friend are distracted, I take this opportunity to collect my things and escape. My desire to get away from those two is strong enough that I practically run through the library and right out the front doors. For a few seconds, I'm blinded by sunlight, but I keep running.

That's when I accidentally bump into someone, knock them to the ground. All of my stuff flies out of my hands and my lips touch someone else's. I blink a few times and once I can see again, I realize that I'm kissing Heather. Mere seconds after this realization, Heather gruffly pushes me away.

I sit on the ground, just looking at her and feeling her lips still pressed to mine even though we aren't kissing any more. It was a completely accidental kiss, but if I wasn't on Cloud Nine before, I am now. Her kiss is as sweet as I dreamed it would be...

"What the hell was that?" she demands.

I look at her and quickly scramble to my feet, holding out my hand to help her up. "It was an accident, a complete accident," I say. "But a nice accident."

She doesn't take my hand. She stands up and then she stomps towards the library, her fists clenched at her sides. "Let's just get this over with!" she growls.

"Actually...let's go somewhere besides the library," I suggest to her. "Since this is such an "inconvenience" to you, then how about I treat you to dinner?"


	4. Chapter 4

-4

Heather looks at me incredulously, blinks a few times. Then she shakes her head, pursing her lips and walks up to me until our faces are only inches apart.

"You're _tutoring _me," she says icily. "It's _**not**_ a date!"

"I was just putting the offer out there..." I say, cursing the blush covering my face. It's just because she's such a short proximity away. She's so close to me.

"I _have _a boyfriend, you know," she continues, folding her arms. "We're in a very _serious_ relationship and the last thing I need is losers like you flirting with me!" She backs away a little, shuffling her feet. "Losers like you are constantly trying to make moves on me! How many times do I have to say it, _Alejandro_? _I'm not interested._"

She's outright rejecting me, telling me outright that she can't stand me. From the beginning, she's had this sort of aloofness towards me, refusing to consider me an equal since-I think-she sees me as intimidating, possibly superior. Yet, right now as she looks at me, I can see her eyes and face telling me a different story from her icy, venomous words.

Her eyes look so regretful and unsure; her lips are trembling. I can tell that she doesn't mean anything that's coming out of her mouth.

It's been her outright rejection, her fire, her anger that drew me to her. And now, I can feel that gorgeous flame dimming, that something's amiss within Heather's soul. Why do I get the feeling that it's not entirely me causing this?

"The library is pretty boring," she says, straightening. "You can tutor me over at my house...And that's all this is: _a tutoring session_."

At least she's trying to regain some of her familiar fervor with that comment.

"Alright-" She doesn't even wait for me to answer; she stomps over to the bike rack.

I gently tap her shoulder and she turns, glares at me. Then I point at my shabby red truck: I had to work several jobs to afford this beauty and I bought her just before my mom and I moved to Cress. I'm very proud of my truck and I can't help the self-satisfied smile that pops onto my face as Heather turns and looks at it.

"Justin drives a Porsche," she mutters, walking around to the passenger side and letting herself in.

I roll my eyes, climbing into the driver's seat. Apparently, whatever glimmer of insecurity I saw in her has faded for now. Briefly.

"You're not impressed with my truck?" I ask, tapping the steering wheel, looking at her quizzically. "I could be a male model, too, if I wanted to. I could even knock Justin right off of that cat walk with ease."

She glared at me, gritting her teeth. My heart pounded at the return of her flame, that ferocious inner fire. _Rowr! Gato bonito, _pretty kitty. I can't help messing with her, even though I'm aware it lessens my chances of making romantic advances on her. She's just so cute and for some bizarre reason, it feels like we...connect...when we argue.

I back out of the library driveway, smirking at seeing Owen and Izzy in my rear view mirror, looking around for me in every place but where I actually was. It's a clean getaway. _Hasta luego...idioto grande_.

Heather's leaned against the seat next to me, her arms folded tightly across her chest and a haughty look on her face. She's looking out the window. I better get my attention back to the road. The last thing I want to do is get into a car wreck because I was paying more attention to her than the road, no matter how much I just want to stare at her.

I wonder if she's aware of how many times a day I stare longingly at her, planning all of my moves. Hoping to win _su corazón_.

"Why do you keep insisting that you're better than Justin?" she asks, deciding she can't give me the cold shoulder anymore. "Big fat as if, Cassanova. News flash, but he _is _the hottest guy in school. He's got _twenty _modeling contracts and he already has a full scholarship for the school of modeling."

She turns up that sweet little pixie nose of hers to the air in an attempt to be snotty. It makes my heart fly into my chest at how absolutely adorable the gesture is.

"Is looks all he has to offer?" I raise an eyebrow as I pull up to a stop sign.

"Um..." Heather's faltering. "He's really, really buff. And fashionable..."

I yawn, showing that I'm obviously not impressed by any of this.

"He's the quarterback of the football team!" she blurts, clenching her fists in frustration. "He pretty much _rules _the school, Alejandro. Not even a Mr. Perfect like you can beat _that_!"

"You just called me 'perfect'..." I muse, turning on to Main Street. "By the way, where do you live?"

Heather ignores my first comment. "203 Willow." It's said through gritted teeth.

That's not very far from the school. I know a lot of the streets here in Cress already since I have a job as a pizza delivery guy. Not a very attractive occupation, but suitable enough considering most jobs in Cress are pretty scarce right now. Today's one of my days off.

I let the silence last for a few minutes, burning to speak to her again. Surprisingly, Heather breaks the silence.

"I didn't mean it as a compliment," she seethed.

"What if I took it as one?"

I could swear that I saw a small smile on her face out of the corner of my eye. It faded so quickly, I thought that I was seeing things.

"I already told you that I'm not interested," she says with conviction. "Stop flirting with me and I won't slap you across the face."

"Fair enough of a trade, I suppose," I say as I pull the truck in front of her house.

Heather's rich. She lives in a huge, red brick, three-story mansion. As if it's nothing, Heather gets out of my truck and starts sashaying towards her "house".

Despite how impressive I am, I live in a tiny town house with my mom. My parents are divorced, so I can't imagine living in a mansion like this, even though I've been inside many before this particular one. Steeling myself, I climb out of the truck and follow her, slinging my half open backpack by my side.

"Does Justin live in a mansion, too, I suppose?" Just another trait to add to the list of her _novio's "_perfection" and supposedly what makes him _soo_ superior to me.

Heather holds up her hand to me in a"shut up" gesture. I guess she doesn't want to discuss the topic anymore.

I follow her into her gigantic house: expensive carpeting, pricy and plush furniture, bookshelves, plasma screen TV, a grand piano, and a fat orange cat lying on top of a couch. Casually, Heather walks over to the couch and collapses onto it, then looks irritatedly at me as I walk over to join her.

As soon as I sit down, the fat cat hops up with more agility than I thought it would have and rushes over to me, plopping down on my lap and mewing. Animals are naturally drawn to me; I've never had any difficulty with them. Just like most girls, no animal can resist me.

I rub the cat behind the ears and it lets out a low, happy purr. I look over at Heather and she's rolling her eyes. "Not you, too, Bart," she groans and sighs. "_Everybody's _falling head over heels for _Alejandro_..."

_Are you? _I think, just feigning an innocent smile at her in response.

"I'm thirsty," she announces, standing up. "I'm gonna be in the kitchen. I won't be long..." She gets up, then turns and frowns at me. "Don't touch anything."

She leaves the room before I can make a clever comment about the fact I'm touching the floor, the couch, and her cat Bart. That's when something inevitably catches my eye. Gently, I push Bart off of my lap and then get up, naturally, and go to investigate.

There's several framed photographs lining an end table that sits next to the plasma screen. All of them are of Heather, ranging from her as a little girl to her presently. In all of them, she's dressed as a ballerina in pink, _rosa._ The color suits her well. But then again, she's always lovely to me anymore.

In all of the pictures, she seems so graceful and serene, a much different person from the girl that I know. I'm drawn to a particular one: it's one of her now, possibly from as recent as last year. In this picture, her arms form an arc over her head, she's up on her tip toes, leaning slightly, and her eyes are closed. Purely, it's a still of her at one of the most essential and dramatic parts of whatever routine she's doing.

Something pulls at my heart as I continue to stare at it. I feel like I'm actually watching her, as if time is frozen, refusing to go forward and I hunger to see it move forward, to see her continue dancing. To see her perform. Without meaning to, I reach up and run my fingers down the glossy surface of the picture, feeling my heart beat slowly. I'm filled with so much longing, it hurts.

"Alejandro?" Her voice pulls me out of my reverie. "**ALEJANDRO**!"

Heather looks horrified as she yanks the picture out of my hands, looking up at me and gritting her teeth in anger. I'm too mesmerized, too _fascinated_, to really be phased or have any real reaction to how angry she is.

"You do ballet?" I ask, truly curious.

Somehow, this makes the anger on her face fade to confusion. She blinks once, twice. "What?"

"Do you do ballet?" I look at her and she lowers the photo.

"Yes..." she says, looking away from me. "I've been doing it since I was six years old. I've even won some awards for it..."

She looks back at me. "Why do you ask?"

"May I see you perform?" I ask, feeling an intense need and desire to see that photo come to life.

"Really?" Her eyes widen and she seems surprised.

"May I?"

Heather actually full-on smiles now, makes a few suppressed noises. Runs her hands through her hair. Somehow, she looks...ecstatic, excited. With a beautiful smile, she presses her hands against me and pushes me back, onto the couch.

I fall back, sinking into the cushions. While she was the confused one before, now _I'm _the confused one!

Heather scurries in front of me, takes a few deep breaths and then slides into a ballet stance. The room seems to be covered in a hushed silence, even Bart is silent as he patters over the couch cushions towards me, settling down next to me. In a quiet deep enough that a pin drop could be heard, Heather takes a long and extended breath as she begins to slowly move into the beginning of a ballet routine.

My breath is taken away as she gracefully and expertly moves, sidling around with a grace and beauty that would rival a swan. The way she does it all instantly...captivates me. She's so focused and concentrated, intent on nothing other than her routine. It's gorgeous; this is a side of her that I've never gotten to see. Perhaps, _nobody's _ever seen her like this unless they've seen her perform.

Right now, she's the center of the universe, an epitome of serenity.

All too soon, she's finished, opening her eyes and sliding into a standing position. I clap as she bows. I clap harder as she comes back up and I continue clapping, letting myself wear a cheek to cheek smile. My heart's about to burst and it just makes me feel like exploding when she smiles back, when a blush as red as roses creeps onto her face.

"That was brilliant," I say, pushing Bart away and standing up. "Absolutely brilliant!"

"Really...?" She looks at me, soaking up my compliment like a flower soaks up sun.

"Yes, truly and absolutely gorgeous, graceful, brilliant, wonderful...So many adjectives I'd probably be going on and on for hours..." I tell her.

"Thanks," she says, raising her eyebrows and smiling. She's not at all shy or nervous. Heather _knows _that she's impressive and absolutely deserving of praise. Just another thing for me to love about her.

I can't get to tutoring her just yet. Now it's _my_ turn to show her how well I know how to dance. It's just fair that I do.

"Since you're such a great dancer, I have another dance I'd like to teach you," I say.

"You're not my dance instructor!" Heather rolls her eyes. "You're just here to tutor me in _Spanish_-"

"This is a _Spanish _dance," I cut her off, wiggling my eyebrows. "So it's completely relevant to my tutoring you."

"I'm not buying it, Alejandro," she says, narrowing her eyes. But I can tell that I've piqued her interest at least.

"Come on..." I say, holding my hand out, palm up to her. "You're such a beautiful dancer. I'm sure it would only add to your experiences, not hinder them, if I taught you how to..._tango_."

Heather gasps and her eyes light up briefly. When she notices the slight expression of emotion, she narrows her eyes and yawns, a very poor attempt to look bored. She reaches out and grabs my hand.

"Alright," she concedes. "But don't make any more of this than what it is..."

She trails off as I pull her closer, clasping my hand through hers, putting her hand on my shoulder and her hand on my waist. Silently, I count out the rapid beats of the dance, nodding my head. I tap my foot and Heather starts tapping hers. We begin to move and all of my movements are fluid and Heather stumbles a little, but she begins to pick up the pace and un-played rhythm very quickly. Soon enough, I'm leading her in small circles, hoping she picks up on how much passion and beauty are truly involved in this dance.

"This is fun..." Heather looks at me, exhilarated, despite herself. "I've always wanted to learn the tango..." The last part is whispered and I can barely hear it, but I do and it warms my heart.

I've impressed other girls with my experience at dancing the tango, but it's never been as rewarding or lovely as it is right now here in Heather's living room with her. I could completely skip tutoring and do this with her all night, until our feet ache, just to continue seeing that _sonrisa _on her face. If I thought she was beautiful angry, she's ten times more beautiful smiling.

"Alejandro...?"

"Yes?"

"I don't really say stuff like this often, so don't take it for granted, okay?" She leans closer to me, our faces millimeters apart. "You're not an entirely bad guy."

I carefully lower her into a dramatic dip, bringing my face closer. Slowly, I bring her back up and then let her go, brushing her fingertips and feeling something electric just as she lets go of my hand. We stand there, staring at each other and Heather looks like a star stuck alien: dazed and confused. I feel the exact same way. I've been feeling like an alien all week.

Who knew that one simple _baile _could really change so much, so fast?

I don't know why I stopped dancing with her, but...

"Let's get to that Spanish lesson," I say distractedly.


	5. Chapter 5

-5

Heather walked around the halls in a daze, her head up in the clouds. For the first time in her life, the smile she wore on her face wasn't forced. All of her friends kept feeling her forehead and asking her if she was ill, but she wasn't. She reached her locker and leaned against it, staring at the ceiling, her head swirling with thoughts of the evening before.

There was no way her thoughts were focused on Spanish; they were focused on a brunette, muscled, _Spanish-speaking_ boy. He wasn't as bad as she'd originally thought. She was fully aware that he was interested and she couldn't deny that there'd been a connection between them. As she opened her locker, Heather was startled when she felt fingers lace through hers, gently tug at her hand.

Tingles ran up her arm and she turned around. Though her brief elation deflated like a balloon when she found Justin, her boyfriend, standing there. She couldn't help the wrung-out wash cloth feeling that washed over her and she bit her lip, trying to put up her fierce, back-off front she usually wore around Justin.

"Hey there, Heather," he said, lowering his sunglasses and smiling. "Gimme a moment. I need to take this."

Before Heather could even speak, Justin flipped a hi-tech cell phone out of his pocket and took his call. His hold on Heather's hand went lax, feeling like he'd pull away at any moment.

_At least Alejandro let me talk...He listened to me and..._Gritting her teeth, Heather tightened her grip on his hand, vainly trying to erase the thoughts of Alejandro swirling around like a hurricane in her head.

"Okay, let's walk," he said, putting his cell phone back in his pants pocket.

Heather nodded, completely familiar with the routine. The two of them took off down the hall at a charged pace. Immediately, the crowds of students pressed to the walls, making way for the two of them. It was all the same stuff: Justin pretending to flirt with girls, Heather glaring at those girls despite it being haphazard today, Justin smiling and waving. All of the schlock that took place walking from her locker to Justin's first hour math class.

"I'll see you at lunch, sexy," Justin said, not even looking at her as he walked into class.

Heather stood outside the door, just staring blankly at it. Justin's words echoed in her head and she realized how meaningless they were: It was obvious he didn't think that anyone other than himself was attractive. Not that Heather could really argue with him there, considering how egotistical she was, but she did see him as attractive. Part of her really wanted to believe that he thought she was attractive...

The late bell rang and the halls were deserted. Standing there, Heather felt utterly alone and strangely hollow.

She collapsed to the tile floor and wrapped her arms around her legs, placing her head between them. It seemed strange that she could be so happy and on Cloud Nine one moment and then down and confused the next. Softly, her heart pounded slowly and ached in her chest.

Looking up, she hoped to find Alejandro standing there with his self-assured smile. All she saw was the empty hallway. For a second, Heather was filled with despair, tears prickling the backs of her eyes. That was when the last person she expected to see showed up: Courtney, the girl running against her for the office of class president.

Smirking, Courtney placed a fist on her hip. "Aren't you supposed to be in class, Heather?"

Immediately, Heather shirked off her sadness and leaped to her feet, clenching her fists. Just Courtney's presence set off flames of anger. "I could ask _you _the same thing," Heather replied nastily.

"For your information, I have a first hour study hall," Courtney said. "And I got permission to hang up posters."

To emphasize, Courtney held up a pile of posters saying "Vote for Courtney" and her face on them. Frowning, Heather followed Courtney as she walked over to a bulletin board. Humming, Courtney took one of her posters from the pile and tacked it to the bulletin board, smiling as she stepped back to admire it.

"I haven't seen any of your posters yet, _Heather_," Courtney said as she fastened two more posters to the board. "If you want _any _chance of being some sort of competition, you'll have to step up your game. I'm gonna crush you into the dirt."

Heather scoffed and rolled her eyes. "I beat you the last two years, I'll beat you this year, too."

"You sound so confident." Courtney turned around and narrowed her eyes at Heather. "You only won because you were dating Justin and Justin told everybody to vote for you."

"I won through my own efforts!" Heather fumed. Courtney was correct, but Heather wasn't going to tell her that.

"It's about time somebody became student body president that wasn't a complete..." Courtney bit her lip, trying to hold back the "b" word. "...dictator. Yeah, dictator."

Rolling her eyes, Heather walked up to Courtney until they were only a foot apart and glared at her. "As if you'd be any better?" Heather challenged.

"I _would_," Courtney said, folding her arms. "I actually _want _the position to better the school while _you _only want the position to bump up your social status. And I'll actually have a chance to win this year now that Justin can't interfere."

Heather's eyes widened, but she bit her lip, suppressing her curiosity as Courtney took on a look of superiority. Everything that Courtney said was true and with each word, she seemed to be pushing Heather farther and farther back into a corner. From the way Courtney's eyes glinted, Heather could tell she knew that she was winning the stare down they were having.

"I've been hearing rumors that Justin's interested in another girl." Courtney tilted her head. "You'll need to watch your back, Heather. Apparently, I'm not the only one competing with you."

Courtney smiled ominously, then turned on her heel and walked down the hallway. Knotting her fingers through her hair, Heather turned around and looked at her feet, bit her lip. Maybe Courtney was just trying to make her feel paranoid, but Heather couldn't help the knot of utter dread that filled her stomach.

She felt so wound up, confused, aggravated, a huge ball of twisted emotions. It really wouldn't hurt if Alejandro showed up out of nowhere and started talking to her right now...

Heather sat at her usual spot at the lunch table, poking absentmindedly at her skimpy salad with her spork.

Justin was sitting with the boys today at the popular boys table and Heather couldn't help looking up every now and then, watching him laughing and high-fiving with all of the guys. Looking at them all, Heather felt her stomach fold into knots for the umpteenth time that day.

_Shouldn't Alejandro be sitting with them...? _she asked herself. The vivid memory filled her head: How he'd bragged so much about how easy it'd be for him to be popular if he wanted to be...

"Hey Heather!" An elbow prodded her and Heather dropped her spork, coming out of her thoughts.

One of Heather's close friends, Beth, was smiling at her, looking expectant.

"What?" she asked, irritated.

"Which barrette should Lindsay wear?" Beth asked, pointing at their blond friend. "Pink or blue?"

"Yeah," Lindsay conceded, holding up the barrettes for Heather to see. "I don't know which one Tyler would like better! What do you think Heather?"

Idly, Heather just stared at the barrettes and could feel Lindsay's and Beth's stares burning into her. Without thinking, Heather just pointed and said, "Pink."

"Pink?" Lindsay and Beth echoed.

"I personally like the blue one," Beth said. "It goes with your eyes, Lindsay..."

Their discussion about barrettes seemed so pointless to Heather. She tuned it out and started looking around the cafeteria, looking for Alejandro in the crowd. As far as she could see, she looked around, staring at everyone that was going to a table bearing a lunch tray, at everyone in general.

That's when she saw him. And he was looking directly at her.

Heather's cheeks burned as she saw the baffled expression on her face reflected on Alejandro's face. His green eyes were widened, his mouth pulled into a thin line; he looked kinda cute when he wasn't trying to appear superior or flirty, which was rare.

Despite herself, Heather shot him a full fledged smile and watched as his face wrinkled a little and then he was returning it. The moment was broken when a blue barrette was held in front of Heather's face.

"...The blue one is much prettier than the pink!" Beth said, dangling it and shaking it in front of Heather.

"Yeah, yeah," Heather said distractedly, standing up.

"_Heather_..." Lindsay complained. "Where are you going...?"

"Bathroom."

"Ooh, ooh! Can I come, too?" Lindsay asked, getting up. "I need advice on which lip stick shade is better for kissing Tyler..."

"I'm coming too!" Beth chorused.

Heather held up her hand. "I...I'm not going to put on make-up, okay?"

She walked away before Lindsay and Beth could protest any further. As she walked, Heather could feel them staring at her. In long strides, she headed purposefully in the direction of the bathroom, but as soon as nobody she knew was looking, she had an ulterior destination in mind.

-Alejandro-

I sat there, staring at the table top. She'd just stared at me and then...looked away.

I couldn't be the only one filled with fireworks and electric current. Something obviously happened last night. Holding her hand, leading her through the tango after seeing her dance, it was making my head spin and cartwheel like the top of a pin wheel. I'm frustrated, yet so happy at the same time. Seriously, I hope she's not ignoring me. Last night was the biggest progress I've had with her since I came to Cress, and if I didn't have to work tonight, I'd probably be getting her to hang out with me again tonight, too.

Even if "hanging out" had to be under the guise of "Spanish tutoring" again.

"Hey Al, you seem really distracted today..." Owen and the _mucha loca _Izzy have started sitting with me at lunch, much to my utter annoyance.

"I'm not distracted," I lie, looking at Owen and suppressing a cringe as Izzy gnaws on his arm.

"You sure look like it," Owen persists. "Are you thinking about food? I get that way when I'm thinking about food..." He looks longingly at Izzy. "...or Izzy."

I roll my eyes, hoping that he'll go back to making puppy eyes with his _novia _again. Unknown to him, he's the last person on Earth that I want to deal with. He might think that I'm his "Spanish buddy", his "amigo" or any of the other stupid titles he's been calling me lately, but he's wrong. All he is is a leech, an incompetent, fart creating-

That's when I see Heather again, acting like a top secret spy. She's pressed against the wall a few feet from my table, making rapid and small gestures at me.

Quickly, I look over at Owen and Izzy. Izzy's feeding Owen her grapes and he's laughing like the big, idiotic oaf he is. Good, they're preoccupied with each other. I take this golden opportunity to slip away and run over to where Heather is. As soon as I approach, she takes off and I follow her.

We subtly leave the lunch room, walk out into the hall way. Heather's eyes are darting around everywhere, nervously. Then we're standing outside of the janitor's closet and my heart's pounding in my chest as my mind travels in a million different directions. She pulls open the door to the closet and I follow her in; we're obscured in darkness for a moment until Heather turns on the lights.

The smell of cleaning utensils, chemicals, and musty water fills the room. But just seeing the tight, enchanted smile that stretches Heather's face makes it seem like romance might not be such an impossible notion in here, albeit a bit uncomfortable.

"Alejandro..." she says and my heart pangs at the warmth emanating in her voice. "I just had to see you again after last night..."

"What are we doing in the janitor's closet?" I ask, smiling and wiggling my eyebrows suggestively.

Heather sighs audibly and looks at me. "I'm not really in the mood for that right now..."

Something's really weighing on her mind since she's not returning my playful banter with her usual anger. This is the same girl I saw in the library parking lot last night, not the one filled with fire and brimstone.

"Courtney said that Justin might be cheating on me..." she blurts, looking up at me with wrinkled brows, then looks away. "This was a really bad idea...I gotta go-"

I grab her wrist before she can leave and pull her towards me. We look at each other and the moment is so confusing. I'm fully aware that Heather doesn't have any romantic feelings for me _yet_, and I'm not really sure if she considers me a friend. All of this seems so strange. Why would she be confiding in _me_ about her boyfriend when all I really want to do is get him out of the picture so that I can be closer to her?

"Alejandro," she says, frowning and authoritative. "Let me go."

"Why did you come get me if you don't want to talk?" I ask her flat out.

Heather shakes her head, looks at her feet. "Please, this was a mistake..."

"Was last night a 'mistake', too?" I ask her, tightening my grip on her wrist. "You can't deny that _something _happened..."

Heather was silent again, biting her lip. Strangely enough, she reaches out and wraps her arms around me, burying her head in my chest. For a second, I can feel my heart beating _rapidamente_. Like the wings of a hummingbird. Then, tentatively, I wrap my own arms around her. We stand there, hugging each other for several minutes.

Silently, Heather looks up at me and wears that irresistible smile again before reaching up and touching my face. Tingles race through me as she traces my jaw lightly with her index finger. Without thinking, I lean closer towards her and she lets our faces get closer, lets the tips of our noses touch.

Her hot breath is on my face and I can see the desire in her eyes. I want the same thing. _Ella quiere una besa! Besa, besa, besa..._Kiss her, _kiss her_. I keep telling myself. But I can't get myself to move. And she won't move either. It's as if we're just frozen there like a pair of statues.

"All I can smell is disinfectant," Heather says in a whisper.

"Yeah," I reply, wanting to kiss her so badly.

"Alejandro, why do you like me?" she asks out of nowhere.

My heart explodes like a supernova in my chest. I try to answer her, to talk, but I can't. For some reason, I can't talk. Everything right now just feels wrong and rushed, maybe even surreal. A huge part of me wants to kiss her and I should since her boyfriend is cheating on her, apparently. But this just doesn't feel right.

I've been the one to cheat and I've been the one girls have cheated with before. I've never felt shame in something like this before, so why do I restrain myself now?

My eyes widen as the realization hits me. This isn't just a crush. I was just faintly realizing it before, but now I just _know_. For the very first time in my life, I'm in love. _I love Heather..._I'm not thinking about it. There's no note of uncertainty here. It's a fact. _**I love Heather.**_

"Alejandro?" she prompts me again.

"Because you're beautiful, Heather," I reply, pulling away from her. "Because you're you. I don't need any further reasons. You're just amazing."

Feeling the heat in the room, I open the door to the closet and pull her out, turning off the lights and closing it. We're standing out in the hallway and Heather's looking up at me, soaking up my compliment and blushing. She reaches out to me, for my hands, looks at me longingly; she wants to say something, but she can't.

I can't find anything else to say either.

"Bye," she says.

"Bye," I echo.

Then we both turn and walk away from each other as if nothing happened.


	6. Chapter 6

-6

Ever since that day in the janitor's closet, things have changed. But definitely not in the way I expected.

Heather's been doing much better in Spanish, thanks to _moi_. She's been frequently tagging me down in the cafeteria and we've been planning the best days for tutoring sessions; she doesn't seem as averse to the idea of me as a tutor anymore. In Spanish class, she even makes an effort to smile at me and say "hi", a new and becoming more frequent occurrence.

The past week has gone by in a blur. Owen and Izzy are just an annoyance in the background; my grades are perfect; and my heart continues to swell with love for the most _mujer hermosa en todos el mundo_...

Each passing day, I find myself falling more and more in love with Heather and I'm feeling less resistance to just accepting the emotion. We keep pretending that nothing happened in that janitor's closet, but something did happen. And Heather seems to be getting closer to me, friendlier, as if she finally considers me an ally.

The one time she's the most alive to me is during the tutoring sessions when I'm guiding her through the tango. She absolutely adores it, and is so determined to learn and perfect it. It just thrills me to see her like that; she loves dancing more than anything else in the world.

It's Thursday evening and it's one of my days off, the evenings I tutor Heather. She's laying against the cushions of her couch, breathing hard and smiling. I've finally started incorporating music into the tango lessons and Heather insists on working until her feet hurt and her legs ache. Today's tempo was a bit relentless, though, the fastest of the fast in Latin rhythms.

"Hey Alejandro..." she says, looking at me and stretching a bit. "I'm having a bunch of friends over for pizza on Saturday. Wanna come?"

The offhand invitation surprised me and I leaned closer to her. "A formal invitation to a gathering at _your _house? _¿Para mi?_"

Heather scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Don't push it, Alejandro." She smiled a little. "I can _un-invite _you."

I wanted to scoot closer to her and smell the perfume she was wearing. Lately, she'd been wearing dresses and skirts, truly accentuating her beauty. If Aphrodite were in mortal form and lived in Cress, she'd be feeling pangs of jealousy towards Heather. All I've been feeling are my heart pounding in my chest like a jack hammer, my hormones raging.

Right now, she's wearing a breezy pink sun dress, her hair tied into a complicated bun. She looks beautiful and sophisticated right now and it's driving me _loco_, almost as crazy as Izzy is. I want to fall to the floor and howl like a victim of lycanthropy at the full moon, but that would be quite inappropriate, not to mention completely uncharacteristic.

"What time?" I ask her, smiling a little.

"8 o' clock," Heather replies. "Well, I've got homework to do."

I know what she's hinting at: time for me to leave. That's always my least favorite part of these visits. Reluctantly, I climb to my feet and start walking to the door, Bart dashing after me and mewing sadly; Bart loves me, an emotion I have yet to see reciprocated by Heather.

"Where are you going?" she asks, looking confused, walking over to me.

"I thought I was supposed to leave now since you have homework," I say with a shrug, not sure why she's the one confused.

"I was going to ask you if you could help me with my math...?" Heather looks at me expectantly.

"_¡Claro!_" I say, smiling.

"Good," she says, not needing any translation. "I wasn't gonna let you say no, anyway."

She grabs my arm and pulls me back to the couch. Surprisingly, she sits right next to me, grabs her math book off of the arm of the couch and spreading it across her lap.

"Get me a free pizza...?" She doesn't even look up from the text book.

"Are you just using me to get free pizza?" I ask her, pulling her leg. "You live in a mansion, so couldn't you steal some money from your parents and pay for the pizza yourself?"

Heather looks up from the text book. "Cheapskate," she playfully accuses me.

Then her expression turns serious, sending chills down my spine. She places a hand on my shoulder and looks into my face.

"You know that I consider you a friend, right?" she asks.

"Yes," I reply, looking into her dark, gorgeous eyes.

"Then ditch those losers Izzy and Owen and come sit at my table," she says with a cat-like smile. "Remember when you said you could be one of the popular kids if you wanted to? Well...your goal has just been achieved. You've won the lottery!"

"I needed an invitation to sit there?" I tease her.

She squeezes my shoulder. "Very funny." She rolls her eyes. "Just sit at my table tomorrow, 'kay?"

My mind's reeling after last night. Today is Friday, that stupid partner project in English is almost over _and_ I'm going to be sitting next to Heather today. I know it's going to be a major step, but the sooner _Justin _knows of my existence, the sooner I can push him out of the picture.

In survival of the fittest, Darwin's coveted theory, only the strongest win. I'm smarter, stronger, more attractive, just all around _better _than Justin. It's an undeniable fact, so I'm going to assert myself. Now. Today. I'm going to shatter this school's "social hierarchy" and maybe even finally convince Heather that she can do better than Justin. And that better is _**me**_.

The lunch bell rings and all of the students fling themselves into the hallway, creating a huge stampede. Carefully, I step out into the hall and join the crowd. A few girls wink and wave flirtatiously at me before running off or joining their friends; I've been getting a lot more attention from the ladies lately after that incident in the cafeteria. Feeling confident, I smile back and acknowledge them, but it's only casual. I'm reserving the serious romance for Heather.

Before I reach the cafeteria, I notice a familiar figure slinking off in a direction other than the cafeteria. It's Justin, and he's alone with Heather nowhere around.

Curiosity getting the better of me, I remember what Heather blurted to me about Justin in the janitor's closet. The telltale signs are all there and it's extremely obvious: Justin and Heather are not the happy couple that they like to pretend to be.

If I can find anything to put a chink in Justin's armor, it just gives me more of the upper hand. I am willing to play dirty. I've always been a bad guy disguised as the knight in shining armor and I'm in no way ashamed of it. Because it can get me exactly what I need sometimes.

Stealthily, I walk alongside the lockers, intent on figuring out where Justin's going. He weaves down a hallway, and his route becomes circuitous. All along the way, he's too busy fiddling with his sunglasses and smiling at people that he wouldn't notice me even if I were being blatantly obvious about it.

Finally, he stops at the last place in the universe that I'd expect a popular male model to go: the school library. I hide beside a wall, inconspicuously peering around the corner of the wall.

Justin walks right up to the doors of the library and a girl pops out carrying a bunch of books. The girl is short, stubby ponytail, and huge glasses; I vaguely recognize her as one of the girls that sits with Heather. Her glasses slide down her face as she smiles, revealing movie star white teeth. They're almost blinding! I clench my teeth and shield my eyes and I'm still adjusting my vision when she finally closes her mouth.

"Hello Beth," Justin says in a silky smooth voice, making her drop her books.

"H-hi Justin," she says, her cheeks flaring up.

"Did you get my math homework done?" he asks, not even bothering to help her pick up her books.

"Y-yeah..." Beth holds up a huge textbook to him as her glasses fog up.

Justin smiles, takes the book, then walks away. Honestly, I'm not surprised by this. The guy didn't look very smart, so of course he'd charm a _pobre _nerd girl into doing his homework with his good lucks. That just gives me more incentive to say that I'm better: I don't have to manipulate people to do my homework.

He's getting away and there's no other cover. I slow my stride to a casual stroll and watch my target with an eagle eye. When I pass Beth, I stoop over and help her pick up her books. I might be evil, but I'm most certainly not impolite to a lady, no matter how unattractive I might find her to be.

"Thanks," she sniffs.

"Of course."

I scurry off before her glasses clear and she sees me; I need to catch up to my target.

On catching up to Justin again, I slow my stride to a stroll again and subtly walk towards the nearest boys' bathroom. The hallways are eerily silent now and the only sounds are our footsteps. Quickly, I sneak a look over my shoulder. Justin didn't even notice me. _Again_.

He's oblivious, lost in the land of Egotistical Beautiful People that constitutes what little there is in his miniscule brain. That's when he comes to a halt.

The hairs on the back of my neck stand up and I'm wondering if I've been caught. I race into the boys' bathroom, holding the door ajar just enough that I can peek out and not be seen. Justin's standing there like an unmoving statue. Again, he didn't notice me. I may be close to perfect, but I know that I'm no James Bond. Is Justin really that oblivious? _Estupido_? Or both?

Then another person steps onto the scene. To be honest, I was getting intimations that Justin was sneaking off to see his supposed "secret lover", but it's not a girl at all. It's a guy I've never seen before, obviously a Goth, with a bright green Mohawk and a sinister scowl on his face.

"Good, you didn't chicken out." The stranger cracks his knuckles. "In either case, I was going to kick your ass anyway. I'm sick of you putting moves on _my _girl."

_Heather? _Is he talking about Heather? If he is, I could easily kick his butt, too. As he clenches his fists, I clench my own and glare at him. My adrenaline's pumping, anger flaring and roiling. At any moment, I'm ready to jump into this upcoming tussle to determine who's the better _hombre_. And it's no mystery of who would win.

"She won't be _your_ girl for much longer," Justin says breezily, flipping his hair. "No girl can resist my good looks or the lure of being homecoming queen _and _class president. I control this school. It's just a matter of time..."

Right in the middle of Justin's monologue, the Goth boy howls and runs towards him, punching him right in the chin. The blow sends Justin staggering back a few steps. When he gets back up, the Goth boy is breathing hard and glaring daggers at him, his fists poised and ready.

I raise my own fists and wait a few more moments, trying to be logical in my approach to this. Some part of me wants to run out and just clock both of them, but it's smarter to wait a little longer before making my debut; I'm not entirely sure what Justin or this Goth boy is capable of when it comes to fighting.

"I'm not here to _dance_!" the Goth boy grunts. "Come on and raise your fists, you _bastard_!" Spittle flies from his mouth on the last word.

"Do you really want to risk a suspension?" Justin jeers, feeling at his jaw where there's now a bruise. "Who do you think the teachers will believe-?"

"SHUT UP!" His shout is loud and echoes through the chasm of the hallway. Angrily, the Goth boy aims at Justin again, right in the nose.

Justin gasps and staggers back again, reaching up and covering his nose. Carefully, he lowers his hand and blood is gushing from one of his nostrils. Now he's angry and advances towards the Goth boy.

"You just ruined my modeling contract!" Justin cries, hitting his opponent right in the chest.

Now the Goth boy staggers back a few steps, clutching at his stomach and gasping. Fueled by anger, Justin runs forward, drawing back a fist. Before he can connect the blow, the Goth ducks off to the side and directs a doublefisted blow to Justin's back, thumping him harshly to the floor. With eyes glowing like coals, the Goth leans down, watching as Justin moans and groans in pain.

"Quit flirting with Courtney," he whispers harshly. "If you even look at her again, I'll kick your ass up and down the street. I'll mess up that _pretty _face of yours so bad you'll have to join the circus."

Courtney? Who's Courtney?

In an unfortunate stroke of luck, I've leaned too far beyond the door that I trip and fall right out into the hallway. For a brief second, I'm on the floor, but I quickly climb to my feet, still trying to determine what just happened here.

Mind still reeling, I find myself face to face with the ferocious Goth guy. He's glaring and looks like the human equivalent of a rabid Pit Bull, his face challenging me. Unlike Justin, I could probably beat this guy up, but since he has absolutely nothing to do with Heather, I have no beef with him.

"Let me guess," he says, clenching his fists. "You're one of Justin's friends, here to back him up."

I look over at Justin. He's just managed to sit up and his hands are covering his bloody nose. Right now, he looks like he direly needs a trip to the nurse's office. He's looking at me quizzically. Of course, he doesn't know who I am. Then I look back at the Goth boy.

"No," I reply. "I was just using the bathroom."

The anger intensifies. "Not buying it."

The excuse was a worth a try. I'd really like to defuse this situation and not fight. There's no necessity for me to fight him, for it would convey the wrong message. In a strange sense, I'm on his side. Part of me actually wants to congratulate him for beating Justin up.

"Alright," I reply, scrabbling for just the right words to say. "I'll explain myself, but shouldn't we get that poor fellow right there to the nurse's office?"

"You're that new kid!" he says accusingly, folding his arms. "You must be the guy Courtney keeps saying Heather is cheating on Justin with..." He narrows his eyes. "Why were you spying?"

I look down at the floor. So there's a rumor going around about Heather and I now? That would make logical sense, considering we've been spending quite a lot of time together lately. I look up and see the Goth boy frowning at me, still waiting for an answer.

"I really believe that we should get you two to the nurse's office," I persist with my lame excuse.

"I'll get suspended soon enough," he snaps. "Answer my question or I'll kick your ass, too. I don't think Heather'll look at you twice after that..." He tilts his head back, making it inevitable for me to leave without either giving him a direct answer or fighting him.

I glance warily at Justin, then back at the Goth boy. "I was looking for Justin since Heather was wondering where he was," I lied, the words flowing easily from my lips. "Heather and I are just friends , nothing more. I promise I won't tell her about this." _This _being Justin trying to cheat on Heather with Courtney.

The words kill me, coming out of my mouth. The Goth boy nods, believing it, surprisingly enough. Then Justin nods at me, having heard my words. "Cool," Justin says, smiling. "You're my new official best friend."

_That's quite an honor_, I think with venomous sarcasm.

"Yeah, good for you," the Goth said, rolling his eyes. Then he turns and stalks away.

There's no other option left to me. I walk over to Justin and extend my hand to him, helping him up. In my head, I see myself kicking his butt, seeing myself in the Goth boy's shoes. Justin can barely walk, so I sling his arm around my shoulder and help him walk down the hall, lead him to the nurse's office.

"You really should consider my offer of being my best friend," Justin yammers. "You'll be in the popular crowd, make _me _look good, and I'll make you look good. Hey, maybe we could even do a model contract...What do you say...What's your name, again?"

"Alejandro," I mutter, wondering _why _I'm helping the guy I consider my enemy.

"Nice to meet you, Al," he says, using the dreaded nick name I thought only Owen would use. "You already know who _I _am. Pretty much everyone does."

When we get to the nurse's office, Justin plops down onto one of the mats and then a nurse comes in. I watch as her eyes sparkle and her knees wobble; Justin seems to have that effect on all women, no matter what their age.

"Oh, what happened?" she cries, rushing to attend to Justin's wounds.

"Duncan cornered me in the halls..." He pulls an innocent face. "And then he beat me up for no good reason! Right, Al?"

The mention of "Al" makes me cringe. I sigh heavily, leaving the room as the nurse smothers and babies Justin the "innocent" boy. When I go out into the hallway I find Heather, her arms folded.

"What happened?" she asks, looking up at me. "I heard that Justin got hurt...?"

"Justin got into a fight with Duncan," I say simply, feeling kind of bad for ratting out one of my possible allies for my enemy.

Heather runs into the office and I can hear her voice mixing with the concerned crooning of the nurse.

If I ever got an injury, would Heather come after me?

I stand there, folding my arms and feeling my heart pound at a steady rhythm like a slow metronome. Standing here, I wonder who I am exactly and why I didn't sock Justin in the face when I had a prime chance...

Now he thinks I'm his _amigo _when I'm supposed to be his _enemigo_.

That's when Heather comes out again. "He's gonna be okay," she tells me.

"_Bueno_..." I say, trying to sound genuine.

"It was a good thing you were there," she continues, looking at me.

We look at each other for a long moment and it makes me wonder what's on her mind.

Then she reaches out and hugs me, folding her arms around me and digging her fingers into my shirt. It feels so natural to have her there, pressing her head against my chest and holding onto me like a life raft. With her holding me like this, everything feels right and I know that everything will turn out okay.

Before I can hug her back, she releases me and goes back into the nurse's office.

Justin was obviously cheating on her. I need to tell her soon and get them broken up. I won't fight with Justin or bother him now since Duncan already did a number on him, but just because I helped him get to the nurse's office doesn't mean that I'm going to let him have Heather.

Heather's _mine_.


	7. Chapter 7

-7

Saturday night. Pizza.

Those two words usually fill any teen with utter elation and delight. It means no school, hanging out with _amigos_, the whole nine yards. For me, I'm in between happy and angry, a very peculiar mix of emotions. It's a very _feo _feeling, like a beautiful aquamarine blue with black added to it, making it a muddy mess. But since I get to see my gorgeous Heather, I'll be able to plaster a smile to my face.

So, here I am, standing outside the front door of 203 Willow a.k.a. Heather's gigantic mansion, my heart beating like a bongo drum, and waiting patiently for Heather, preferably, to let me in.

The door opens and there she is...

My heart leaps for a brief second, but falls quickly when I see Justin there beside her. My only consolation is that he's sporting an eye patch, probably to cover his stupid black eye.

"Hey Alejandro, come on in," Heather says, melting my heart with her smile.

"Yeah! Come on!" Justin echoes. "_Vanayos!_"

They both grab one of my wrists and pull me into Heather's warm and bright living room. When Justin's not looking, I scowl a little. It's bad enough that he's my obviously inferior romantic rival, but he just made me hate him that much more with his poor _Español_. It's _vamanos_, not whatever jumbled up garble that came out of his mouth.

Finally, they let go of my wrists and I'm looking at a fairly huge group of people: lots of unfamiliar and familiar girls and boys. They all wave at me and the girls not attached to boys' arms or making out with a boy, wink and smile at me. Before I can give any further reply, Justin grabs my arm and drags me to the closest couch. We sit down right next to a cute blond with freckles and big green eyes.

"This is Sandra," Justin says, motioning to the girl who smiles and gives a tiny wave. "Talk to her."

He shoves me towards the unfamiliar girl, then gets up and walks away. I've been here barely a minute and the list for reasons why I _hate _Justin has tripled in size.

"Hey, Justin's told me a lot about you," Sandra says, batting her eyes flirtatiously. "You seem pretty hot. I'm the captain of the cheer leading squad. Wanna go out with me?"

On a different occasion, I'd be thrilled to be with this pretty girl and flirting back with her, but tonight she is simply a distraction. I know she's flirting with me, but her comment about Justin is what really sticks out in my mind. _Justin, Justin, Justin_...Why is everyone so obsessed with Justin?

"I'm a good kisser, too," Sandra purrs, inching closer to me. "Lemme show you."

I'm not sure what to do as she inches closer and closer to me, closing her eyes, puckering her lips. My focus diverts between her and Heather at the other end of the room. Everyone else in the room is kissing now and Justin's and Heather's faces are only inches apart.

It should be me standing there, not him. Hot fury ignites within me like a volcano about to erupt, but that's when Sandra turns my face around and reels me in like a fish. She's so aggressive, digging her fingernails into the back of my black button-up shirt and pressing her lips against mine. Her kiss is moist and...tastes strangely like chicken.

Mere seconds into Sandra's kiss, I'm yanked away from Sandra. It feels like I'm being strangled by the iron grip on my shirt collar and when I turn to look to see who it is, Heather's glaring. All of her teeth are bared and her eyes are full of fire. I know it was an inappropriate reaction, but my insides were exploding like fireworks on the fourth of July. She truly is a bizarre sort of attractive when she's angry. The way her lip curls back, her narrowed eyes, the fierce aura she exudes.

"Heather!" Sandra cries, almost a shriek. "What the hell?"

Heather rolls her eyes. Now everyone's looking at us, pulling away from heated make-out sessions. I stand up and gently remove her fingers from my shirt collar. It's hard, but I suppress my urge to squeeze her shoulder to assuage any sporadic thoughts that may be ricocheting around in her mind.

"I knew it! I knew it!" one girl squeals, pointing at Heather. "Heather's cheating on Justin!"

The boy next to her smirked. "Heather's a ho!"

"Skank!" a redhead echoes.

"Cheater, ho, skank, whore," another boy says, fake coughing in-between each insult.

"Can you really blame her?" another girl says. "Alejandro's hot! I wanna tap _that_ next, Heather. Or how about a threesome? I'm _very _open minded..."

The room broke out in laughter. Every comment had the effect of a bullet. My cheeks were flushed and I turned to look at Heather: she was biting her lip and looked absolutely mortified. Worried, I reach out to her, but she takes off down the hall, running. Once she's gone, I'm face to face with a bemused and skeptic Justin.

"I _was _going to break up with her anyway," he says matter-of-factly, jutting out his chin. "You can have that loser."

That's the last straw. Without thinking, I lash out and punch Justin right in his chin. It was the perfect target, so I believe I can justify myself for doing it. The blow makes Justin take a few steps back, then he looks up at me, his cold blue eyes wide as he gasps in pain. There's a small trickle of crimson blood running out of his mouth.

"Why...why'd you...do that...?" He gasps between every word.

"Heather's the one that's too good for you," I say, my voice emotionless and cold, subzero cold. "You are the loser, here, my _friend_. I have been wanting to do that ever since I first met you..."

Heather's living room was quickly becoming Antarctica. Everyone huddled around Justin, glaring at me and looking flabbergasted. Surprisingly, Sandra was standing next to me as were Heather's friends Lindsay and Beth. One half of the room was on Justin's side, the other half was on mine. The numbers may not have been equal, but I could honestly care less about reputation right now.

All I want to do is beat up Justin and then go to Heather. The sooner I get to Heather, the sooner the planets begin to properly re-align themselves. I've been waiting so long for this confrontation. For emphasis, I raise my fists and shoot daggers with my eyes at the "beloved" Justin.

"What'd I do to _you_?" Justin asked as his fan girl gently dabbed at his jaw.

"You did nothing," I reply, remaining steely and merciless. "You simply stand between me and the beautiful woman that has captured my heart. I am so much better than you, in every conceivable way. As long as you are with her, you are my enemy..."

"You can have her!" Justin yells, shaking his head. "We don't need to fight...but I'd kick your stupid little Spanish butt if we did, you bastard."

I take a step forward. "Fight me."

"Sure," Justin says, narrowing his eyes and brutally pushing his fan girl aside.

"Justin!" someone protests.

Everyone backs away and it's just the two of us, face to face, several feet away like two cowboys in a showdown. We do not exchange any more ridiculous trash talk. Everything is silent, but the silence is shattered quickly as Justin howls, launching a punch at me. A punch that I easily dodge.

With anger powering me, I brutally use my free hand to punch Justin in the chest. He gasps and wheezes, staggering back a few steps. I'm underhanded, so I sweep his feet out from under him, much to the garbled protest of the observers, and watch him collapse to the floor. I cross my arms and wait as Justin lays there, rolled in a ball, and wheezing for air. He's obviously down for the count, so I decide to be at least a modicum of honorable and leave him there like the pathetic worm that he is.

Glaring, I lean down to his level, our faces only inches apart.

"Mess with the bull, you get the horns," I say severely. "If you or anyone else messes with Heather again, or if you personally insult me, be sure that I will be more than happy to beat you up again."

Blowing a loose strand of hair out of my face, I stand back up and leave the despicable scene behind me. I feel no remorse or guilt, only satisfied. As I wander off to find Heather, I smirk a little. It's about time that I got my chance to put that loser in his place. My confidence fades down as I snake through the unfamiliar hallways, peering into various well furnished, very ostentatious rooms in search of Heather.

When I don't find her downstairs, I find a grand staircase at the end of the hallway and go upstairs. The first door I find on my left, I hear soft sobbing behind it. Carefully, I open the door and walk in, my heart wrenching in my chest when I find Heather sitting on her bed, her hands covering her face, her knees pulled up under her chin. This is the last thing I'd ever expect to see from Heather.

Softly, I tread closer to where she was and sat down next to her. Without speaking, I reached out towards her and ensconced her in my embrace. To my surprise, she didn't pull away, she leaned against my chest. Silently, she turned her head and looked up at me. Her eyes were red and puffy, clear tears still running down her face. Gingerly, I wiped them away and she actually managed a small smile.

"Hi Alejandro..." she says, pulling away from me and scrubbing her face.

I sit there, waiting patiently, not sure of what to expect.

"I heard what Justin said," she says softly, wrapping her arms around herself. "It was gonna happen anyway...I knew he was cheating..."

I leaned closer to her and gently touched her shoulder. "Why did you date him?"

Heather shrugs, not meeting my eyes. "Reputation..." she says simply. "He's the most popular boy in school. And dating him made me popular, too. Now...I'm pretty sure he's broken up with me. I don't know what'll happen now..."

She took a deep breath.

"I can't believe I ran away like that," she says, sighing. "Even if I'm not popular anymore...Oh, who am I kidding? I'm _nothing _without a freaking reputation! They called me a..a...and that's what I'll be called. I'm a...loser."

Tears start to leak from her eyes again, her lips are trembling. Before she can collapse into another bout of sobs, I place one hand under her chin and tilt her head back to make her look up at me.

"No," I say. "They do not decide who you are, _you_ do that. You're strong, aggressive, beautiful. You can do anything and everything, Heather. Don't let them get to you. They're the losers, not you."

I smile as her tears stop and she looks at me with wide eyes.

"I beat up Justin for you," I continue. "The rest is up to you. Don't let him win. He might be the king of the school, but he can be easily replaced. We can stomp him into the dirt and rule the school ourselves. We can do everything he does now and I know exactly how to do it. How do you feel about revenge?"

I let the evil smile creep onto my face and I watch as my smile is reflected on her face. Her tear stained face looks absolutely sinister as her eyes show that she's seriously thinking about my proposition. She pulls away from me and folds her arms across her chest, her smile turning into a full grin.

"Count me in," she says, smirking. "I like the way you think."

"Excellent," I say, my brain already mapping out all of the ideas and possibilities. "I think Sandra left off somewhere..."

I raise an eyebrow and wiggle it suggestively. Before I can make any other moves, Heather practically jumps on top of me, pressing her lips to mine. She has me pinned to her bed like a wrestler to a wrestling mat. It feels so energetic and powerful, her lips sending rippling waves of electricity from her to me. Seconds pass and she comes closer, digging her fingers into my hair and entwining them there.

I wrap my own arms around her and she presses her hand to my cheek. Pulling away, she looks down at me, wearing a wicked smile.

"Don't think too much of this, Cassanova," she says, tenderly caressing my cheek. The Heather I know and love has returned.

"You weren't...jealous of Sandra, were you?" I tease, watching as her cheeks redden.

"Hell no!" she says, pressing the tip of her nose to mine. "You're _mine_."

She starts kissing me again and the kisses turn into full on making out. It's wonderful, the substance of my dreams for the past weeks. So electrifying. My body is on fire and I can tell that this time around, the kiss is no accident. Right here, right now, Heather wants me as bad as I've been wanting her for such a long time. There's so much adoration and passion, as if we're a pair of endlessly exploding firecrackers.

In my ears, I can hear the pounding of my heart like ocean waves. Heather is so close that sometimes I can hear her heart pounding. And it's beating as rapidly as mine. They both seem to be pounding to a similar rhythm, a song that they can both dance crazily to. All I can focus on are her lips and her hands running through my hair, the way I catch fire merely from her touch. The feelings are so wonderful that I want to lay here having her kiss me forever. Unfortunately, that 'forever' lasts around only ten minutes before it has to ultimately end.

Heather and I are lying there, breathing hard and panting. Heather rolls off of me, onto the floor, bouncing back onto her feet. By now, her face is clear and her confidence is back.

"What now?" I ask, smirking at her.

"Everybody's getting the hell out," she replies. "Except you. I _want_ to talk to you."


	8. Chapter 8

-8

Heather pulls me by the hand out into the hallway and looks at me with an intense expression on her face. She's planning something. I can almost see the gears of her brain turning and chugging just from the slight trace of a smirk on her lips.

She walks in long strides, purposeful and on a mission. When we come back out into the living room, several pairs of eyes turn to look at us, burning like lasers. Surprisingly, Heather doesn't pull away, she just tightens her grip on my hand. I squeeze her hand back and look out at the crowd, shooting daggers specifically in Justin's direction.

There's several girls-lovesick fan girls-helping Justin get back to his feet. He looks at me with fear, the pupils of his eyes shrinking. That's exactly the reaction that I wanted. A spike of satisfaction travels through me, but I suppress my smirk, forcing myself to continue to look ferocious.

The two of us walk right towards Justin, my footsteps in sync with Heather's. Briefly, Heather lets go of my hand, leans down into his face and sneers.

"We're through," she says. "For the record, _I _broke up with _you_."

"Kudos to the happy couple," Justin replies sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "I knew you were cheating on me with Alejandro, Heather." He looks so pathetic as he turns and gives the girls a fake puppy dog look. "I'm the victim here! I've been beaten up _twice_! And Heather broke my heart..."

The girls crooned and a few offered to go out with him. I came up to stand next to Heather, folding my arms and looking down at him. "Duncan beat you up because you were involved with his girlfriend. And I can specifically recall that you said that you were going to break up with Heather?"

Everyone on 'Team Justin' looks at me with widened eyes. Some others on the side of the room that had been looking on with distaste and dismay walked over to stand next to Heather and I.

"I'm not buying it, Justin!" another girl chorused-Beth.

Both Heather and I turned to look at her and she blushed a little, abashed by the attention. Then Lindsay and Sandra walked in front of Heather, both of them folding their arms and glaring at Justin.

"I never liked you anyway, dude," Sandra says. "You're an asshole."

"Yeah!" Lindsay agreed.

I turn to look at Heather, wondering what she's thinking. Her face is blank and her eyes are wide as she watches all of this playing out. Gently, I tuck a loose strand of her hair behind her ear.

"Heather...?"

That's enough to knock her out of her stupor and she pushes through Lindsay and Sandra, marching up to Justin with her hands on her hips. "Get out!" she tells him coldly, then looks up at everybody else. "_All of you..._Get out of my house!"

"OUT!" she booms one more time for emphasis, pointing at the front door.

Shakily, the crowd staggers towards the front door, muttering under their breaths and carrying Justin. I can't help swelling with pride as we all watch Heather, at her fiercest. Once the door closes, she turns and looks at all of us, letting out a breath.

I want to walk over and wrap my arms around her, but I have a feeling she wants to be alone with me first before any more displays of affection. My body is aching and I wish that nobody else were here. I've been waiting so long and I want her so badly, but since we did kiss once already, I suppose I can wait a little bit longer.

"I'm leaving," Sandra announces. "Where's the pizza?"

Sandra wanders towards the kitchen while Beth and Lindsay go over to Heather and envelope her in an awkward group hug. Both of them are smiling and it almost looks like one of those cheesy picture perfect moments, except for the cute, irritated look on her face.

"You're awesome, Heather!" Beth crows.

"Yeah!" Lindsay echoes.

The irritated look on Heather's face softens, surprisingly.

"I am pretty awesome," she says, smiling a little.

"Are you gonna be okay?" Lindsay asks, frowning.

"I never knew that Justin was such a jerk..." Beth mumbles, glancing momentarily in my direction. "Alejandro's really, really hot..." She looks up at Heather again, smiling sheepishly. "Yeah, are you gonna be okay?"

"This never happened," Heather replies, pushing them away. "Now...get out and tell everybody that _I _broke up with Justin!"

Lindsay and Beth nod, turning and heading towards the door. Both of them finally walk out and then Sandra comes back in, chewing on a piece of pizza and carrying one of the huge boxes. That's somewhat surprising to me since most 'cheer leading captains' pick at salads. My anxiety is growing and I'm half tempted to just kick Sandra out since she appears to be in no hurry to leave.

"Are you two gonna go out?" Sandra asks, smiling once she reaches the door. "You're a really cute couple...If not, I'll make sure you can find me, Alejandro."

"GET OUT!" Heather shrieks, just as Sandra winks and _finally _leaves.

The house is strangely quiet following the commotion that just took place. Heather turns and looks at me and I look at her. It's a long minute of staring. We were both so determined to empty the house and both were more focused on jostling Justin one last time before he was officially kicked out. Now that that part is over, I'm not quite sure what will follow.

I make the first move.

I reach up and stroke her cheek, pulling her close and holding her in a close, tender embrace. It feels so nice to just hold her like this and I sigh out loud, placing my head on top of hers. I'm surprised when Heather leans up and quickly kisses me.

"Dance with me," she commands, taking my hands and setting us up for a tango.

Automatically, we launch into the rhythm and steps of the dance. In the short time that we've been practicing, Heather has picked it up quickly. We're a pair of swans on a lake, gliding back and forth with grace and ease, almost as if we're a pair of tango partners that have been practicing for much longer than we really have been. Without any words, I guide Heather into a little turn and she spins like a slow motion top, ending by leaning against me.

"What were we talking about earlier," she says. "What did you have in mind?"

"Oh...quite a lot," I reply, sending her back into the usual routine. "It'll take awhile for me to tell you all of it..."

Heather puts on a smirk that I'll never get tired of seeing. "I'm _all ears_."

I don't really like pizza, but since Heather has five boxes of pizza she can't think of how to dispose of, I end up eating an entire pepperoni pizza. I'm way too full and I feel like that glutton Owen. My stomach gurgles as the light bulb finally goes off in my head and I seriously regret not thinking of it sooner.

"I know somebody who would love all of this pizza..." I say, rubbing my stomach and craving an antacid.

"Owen?" Heather smiles at me, cheese hanging out of her mouth.

"I'll take them to-" My words are cut off by a loud, disgusting belch. Instantly, I recoil, nauseated by the smell that's left over. I'm so embarrassed and mortified, my cheeks blazing as I turn away from Heather.

Suddenly, a loud fart rips through the air. The sound is unmistakable. My eyes widen and I turn, fear bubbling in me, expecting to see that giant bubblehead bounce out of nowhere. Instead, I see Heather smiling nervously and fanning at the air, her pupils snaking in all directions.

We both look at each other, blushing.

"This never happened," we both say at the same time.

Heather wipes her lip then inches closer to me, putting her hand over mine. My fingers lattice through hers. I love how soft her hands are, how gentle they can be considering how ferocious and angry her personality is. She looks at me and smiles, a beautiful and genuine smile.

"Technically, I am single now..." she says, squeezing my hand.

"Let me guess," I reply, leaning towards her and trying to be sly. "You want a boyfriend...?"

Smirking, Heather places her other hand on my chest. "I don't know if a Spanish speaking Cassanova is my type," she says. "I don't think I could handle roses hanging out of my locker or poetry."

"The way your mouth quirks when you smirk. That sparkle in your eyes when you look at me. Your green eyes are full of venom and deceit, yet they go so soft when you look at me," Heather says, tracing circles on my chest. "I already knew that you liked me, but I didn't know that you were such an evil mastermind. There's something about you that's...irresistible. You're just plain _sexy_." 

I look at her, feeling my heart jump in my chest. Yes, I'm not really surprised by the words since I've heard similar things before, but they mean so much more coming from her mouth. From her, _estas palabras_ are so much more meaningful. She's saying it all voluntarily and openly, truly inviting me to be a part of _su mundo_. Her world. It's like she's telling me all of this to figure out where we really stand. In a way, we're..._connecting_. Before we become true partners in crime.

"And you," I say, touching her chin and gently stroking her cheek. "I don't know if I can handle having someone so fierce and angry as _mi novia_. You are so full of life and spirit, in a league all of your own. Not only are you _hermosa_, but you are intelligent, amazing. When you look at me, your eyes have been full of hatred, yet at other times you can be so genuine and graceful. I can't help staring at someone that...captivates me..."

We're both speechless after _spilling our guts out_ to each other, for lack of a better way to describe it. Words truly convey quite a bit and in combination with just the right facial expression, they are truly potent. I can vouch for my theory, counting the countless times I've seen it in action. I wonder if what's going through Heather's mind is exactly what's going through mine.

The two of us are so similar in personality that we almost have the same thoughts. When I was discussing my 'evil plans' to rule the school with her, she was finishing quite a few of my thoughts. I'm not sure if it's premature in our relationship for me to say this, but I cannot shake the feeling that Heather might just be...'the one'.

I'm fully aware that she's probably not to this point of thinking yet. That makes perfect sense since we just shared our first, well, voluntary kiss tonight. But I'm wondering if she might just start having thoughts like this eventually. Thinking like I have ever since I first met her is an unusual, yet extremely exhilarating experience for me.

Now she looks at me again, still looking for the words to say. I wait until she finally looks me right in the eyes, mustering all of her characteristic confidence that I absolutely adore.

"Will you go out with me?" The words are so simple and yet there's so much behind them. And I admit that I've been waiting for them, so I spend a moment or so relishing in them. The word 'yes' is stuck in my mouth as I smile charmingly at her and watch as she becomes confused, anxious, kind of irritated.

I let out a breath. "_Sí_."

No more words are said as she leans towards me and kisses me shamelessly. Our faces are only an inch apart when she pulls away and I can see the longing and electricity in her eyes. The night has been so long, but neither one of us can get enough of the other.

Without asking permission, I wrap my arms around her and kiss her. I kiss her longer than she kissed me, rubbing her back and running my fingers through her hair. She wraps her arms around me and digs her fingers into the material of my shirt. The kiss lasts for at least two minutes before I pull away and we just look at each other again.

We kiss several more times, since words seem so inadequate right now. If I could have my way, I'd be kissing _mi mujer_ all night, holding her, being all around affectionate. Now that she is receptive to my advances, I don't want to leave her side. I want her to know how much I love her, just what it truly means to me to be in love with her. It would be so wonderful if I didn't have to wait for Heather to fall in love with me like I have for her. But that doesn't happen over the course of one night.

After six or seven kisses, Heather and I look at the kitchen clock. 12:30.

We look at each other remorsefully, knowing what has to happen now.

"_Buenas noches, cariño_," I whisper in her ear, kissing her lightly on the cheek.

"What's that mean?" Heather asks, looking at me.

"Good night, sweetie."

I turn and walk away, blushing as I walk out and feeling like the happiest _hombre _on the planet.


	9. Chapter 9

-9

Courtney leaned against the line of lockers, holding a stack of fliers close to her chest. Her eyes darted around, looking at everyone passing by in the hallway. They were all absorbed in the trials and tribulations of each of their own little worlds, totally oblivious to the subterfuge and underhanded things she'd been doing. As each day went by, Courtney was beginning to question her own moral code and ethics. Her ambition and desire was so strong, Courtney was pretty much doing _everything _to get what she wanted...

"Hey Courtney!" A thin blond kid appeared out of nowhere, smiling as a squiggle of snot squirted out of his nose.

Carefully, Courtney dodged around him and averted her gaze from his bright red and pimply face. "Hi...Arnold..."

Quickly, she grabbed him by his upper arm and dragged him into the nearby janitor's closet, absently flicking on the lights on her way. Instantly, the smell of disinfectant and cleaners filled the room, making her usually quick working mind fog up. She watched as Arnold's face lit up and his pupils turned into hearts.

"Oh Courtney..." he sighed, breathing hard. "I've been waiting so long for a girl to make-"

Aggressively, Courtney grabbed his shoulders and pinned him against a metal rack filled with buckets. It shook a little; Courtney glared while Arnold laughed meekly.

"I like aggressive women," he snorted. "You remind me of my mom!"

"Arnold," she said in an authoritative tone. "You have the surveillance tape of Heather and Alejandro in the janitor's closet, right?"

"_Korrigieren_," Arnold affirmed, confusing Courtney. "That means 'correct' in German!"

Quickly becoming irritated, Courtney grabbed the front collar of the nerd's shirt and lifted him an inch or two off the ground, looking at him with cold, cold eyes.

"Take your video camera and take footage of them today," Courtney instructed, smirking a little. "Catch every. Little. Detail. Get an interview with Justin, too. And you're Harold's best friend, right?" Arnold nodded. "Get the AV club together. You're going to be making a video especially for _President _Courtney..."

As she lowered Arnold to the ground, she felt a surge of satisfaction, dominance. She tuned out as Arnold started babbling like a lovestruck idiot, then pushed him out of the janitor's closet. For a few minutes, she stayed in there, staring fixedly at the clock mounted on the wall. Right at 8 o' clock, the bell rang, the innards of the closet buzzing with the vibrations of the sound.

Smirking, Courtney exited the janitor's closet and there were Katie and Sadie, standing just outside the door and right on time. Both of them had cheek to cheek grins, wore matching green dresses, and had Courtney pins fastened to their sleeves.

"I'm soo excited!" Sadie squealed.

"Me too!" Katie said.

Wordlessly, they followed Courtney, trying to suppress high-pitched squeals. She walked through the halls, looking casual, but secretly she wished that Katie and Sadie would be a bit quieter. There were many other people she could have gotten to do this, they just happened to be at the right place at the right time, gullible, and in love with six packs.

On the way, Courtney approached Geoff and Bridgette as well, both in the middle of a heated make-out session. She pulled Bridgette away by her ponytail, dragging her off towards the water fountain. To throw off Katie and Sadie for a brief moment, Courtney sent them both six texts on their cell phones, using the natural ability of every socially connected teenage girl to push the buttons on her cell phone keypad in her pants pocket. Many math periods had been put to good use in her practice to adapt her skills.

"You could've just tapped me on the shoulder or something!" Bridgette complained.

"Yeah, you're so wrapped up in Geoff that you don't notice _anything_," Courtney countered. "A spider could land on your shoulder and you wouldn't know!"

"Yeah, I guess that's true," Bridgette mused, nervously shooting a glance at her shoulders. "So, what do you want?"

"It's not what _I _want," said Courtney, trying to look sincere. "It's totally obvious that you're crushing on Alejandro..."

Bridgette's eyes darted around and Courtney could see the sweat breaking out on her forehead. "I'm...I'm going out with Geoff!" she stammered.

"I heard that Alejandro had a crush on you, too," Courtney continued, her voice like silk. "He wants to ask you to Homecoming. He even writes poetry, haikus actually, about you everyday in English class..."

"P-poetry?" Bridgette could hardly breathe.

"He was going to ask you out for a romantic evening this Saturday..."

Courtney watched as Bridgette's pupils shrank and she bit down on her lip. She shook her head, causing her long blond ponytail to whip behind her like a tail. Collecting herself, Bridgette clutched at her arms and furrowed her brows.

"I n-need to talk to him..."

"I know where he is," Courtney said.

Bridgette nodded. "Thank you, Courtney."

As Bridgette snapped away to talk to Geoff, Courtney spun a finger through her hair and grinned. Check and mate. The intricate steps of the grand plan that she had been devising for over a month now were falling perfectly into place. Soon, she'd hold that oh-so-coveted spot of student body president. Heather would topple easily and her other opponents would fall just as easily.

Heather was the king pin so Courtney had to get her first. After that, the election would be child's play! Smiling a little, Courtney knew that she was quickly developing the makings of a fierce political candidate. She should go into politics after high school.

As soon as Bridgette started following Courtney, Katie and Sadie were scratching their heads and confused by the fake text messages. With glittering eyes, they just dropped it completely and started marching after Courtney again. Charismatic and a natural born actress, Courtney gathered six or seven other girls with a story similar to the one she'd told Bridgette. Courtney was on the fringes of the popular crowd and that was enough notoriety for her to be able to pass made up stories as rumors or gossip that was seen as convincing.

Just as she'd predicted, Courtney spotted Alejandro casually rummaging around in his locker. He was smiling and humming to himself as he pulled out books and other materials. Mentally, Courtney counted off to three, ticking off the numbers on her fingers. Around her, the gaggle of girls sounded like a hive of bees, murmuring and talking to each other.

As soon as they all saw Alejandro, they surged forward like a herd of elephants. Just before he could close his locker, a short brunette hopped up onto his shoulders and peered down into his face, her hair hanging into his eyes like a curtain.

"_Hola._..?" he said, confused.

"Don't you dare use your irresistible Latin charm on me!" Then she laughed. "I didn't know that you liked me! Maybe four leaf clovers really are good luck! I'll definitely go out with you!"

"Um...Alejandro..." Bridgette looked nervous. "I'm going out with Geoff-"

"I _love you_, too!"

"ALEJANDRO!" Katie and Sadie shrieked in unison.

All of the girls started talking over each other, surrounding Alejandro until he was pushed up against his locker. He actually looked scared, his eyes the size of bowling balls. The ambitious brunette slinked up to him and her cheeks turned red as she laid a hand on his chest. Two other girls walked out of the crowd and pushed against each other to cuddle up to him.

Others backed away.

"Yeah, I _have_ a boyfriend," Bridgette said, turning and shuffling away, trying to quell how nervous and fluttery she appeared.

"Me, too," LaShawna said, shaking her head. "I'm not interested in a _player_."

Courtney stood off to the side, her arms folded. As the seconds passed, the remaining girls continued to crawl over Alejandro like a swarm of hungry ants, mewing his name. A couple tried to kiss him, but he kept battling them off, his eyes wide and he tried to be gentle. He kept trying to protest and argue, but the girls were babbling so much, he couldn't be heard over them.

Perfect timing came in again as Heather showed up, staring at the ceiling with an unusually faraway look in her dark eyes. That was when Sadie managed to push her way through the crowd, wrap her arms around Alejandro's neck and plant a great big, sloppy kiss on his lips. The display instantly caught Heather's attention.

She stood there, her eyes wide, looking shocked. The shock changed to horror and then to complete rage. Courtney watched as Heather charged towards the scene like a rushing freight train, grabbing girls and throwing or pushing them away. Viciously, she grabbed Sadie by the back of her dress and smacked her across the face. Gritting her teeth, Heather smacked her several more times, leaving her face red and covered in hand prints, before shoving her away.

Heather looked up at Alejandro, her face unable to register all of the emotions rolling through her. There was a long silence while they stared at each other, Heather clenching and unclenching her fists. Finally, she let her hands drop to her sides and looked up at Alejandro with an unreadable expression.

"I knew it was too good to be true," Heather sighed.

Courtney's eyes widened when she saw sparkles at the edges of Heather's eyes. Liquid. She gasped, watching as Heather frowned and struggled to suppress the tears.

"I saw how you were with all of those other girls," she said, her voice thick with emotion. "I should have known...that I was just another one. Just another notch in your belt. You don't care about me. You only care about how many girls are...are oogling you...You just want to take Justin's place...You're just a manipulative bastard..."

All of the other girls around watched with shocked expressions, some pulling out their cell phones and urgently texting their friends. Katie looked at Sadie, patting the slap marks on her friend's cheek, torn between fury or sympathy towards Heather. The scene even gripped Courtney. She bit her lip, trying to steel herself, but she couldn't help the guilt blossoming like a flower in the middle of her chest.

"You're a manipulative bastard," Heather said again. "I can't believe I gave you a chance...All of those words, those longing stares, all of it was just an act. You knew exactly what to say to melt my heart. To make me puddy in your hands. I knew I shouldn't have fallen for you. I knew it was all just a big ruse..."

Heather shook her head as tears started falling down her face. "We're don-"

"NO!" Sadie screamed, hopping to her feet, holding out a hand.

Everyone looked at her and she took a deep breath as Heather turned to look at her. Carefully, Sadie walked up and looked at Heather, frowning as tears pooled in her own eyes.

"You're going out with Alejandro...?"

Heather nodded slightly, looking confused as she angrily swiped at her tears.

"Don't break up with him," Sadie said, shaking her head. "This is all my fault. I didn't know that you two were going out...None of us did!"

The other girls nodded as Heather looked around at them, vindicating themselves. The brunette walked forward and looked skeptically at Alejandro. Then she stooped down and picked up a paper that had fallen out of his locker, unfolded it, then took a paper out of her back pocket and unfolded that, comparing the handwriting on them both.

"Wait..." she said, squinting. "Courtney gave me this." She held up a piece of paper. "And she claimed that it was a love note from Alejandro." She held up the two pieces of paper, pointing at each one. "That's obviously not his handwriting!"

All of the girls started talking, clamoring to get a look at the pieces of paper. Whatever guilt Courtney had been feeling drained away quickly. Adrenaline zoomed through her veins like liquid lightning and she quickly scuttled away, taking off through a maze of hallways, zipping past confused and bored students, as she was filled with utter fear.

Running on autopilot, Courtney kept running, right until she ended up in the janitor's closet. She collapsed to the floor, gasping and trying to catch her breath.

"Courtney?" Two voices chorused at the same time.

Fear clutching at her, Courtney almost believed that Alejandro and Heather were in there, ready to beat her up. Without meaning to, Courtney opened her mouth and screamed, letting out all of her fear and frustration. Everything had been going so well and then Sadie had had to let her morals and guilt get the better of her and then there was that stupid brunette...

When she stopped screaming, Courtney took a few deep breaths and when she came back to reality, her day just became that much worse.

Right in front of her, Duncan had his arms wrapped around the creepy Goth girl Gwen and they were looking at _her _as if she was the scary murderer in a horror film. And the longer Courtney looked and the more that added up in her mind, she was just about ready to rip both of their heads off.

"You're cheating on me?," Courtney fumed, glaring at Duncan. "_You're cheating on me?_"

Duncan loosened his grip on Gwen and stood up. "Hey, you were cheating on me with _Justin_," he said accusingly.

"I knew you had a crush on her!" Courtney screamed, getting angrier. "You've been staring at her ever since you got back from juvie! I _knew _it! I knew-"

"Stop!" Gwen got in-between them. "Stop, please..."

Courtney glared at Gwen and pushed her roughly away. Then she folded her arms across her chest, trying to look at least somewhat dignified as tears started to well up in her own eyes.

"You know we're through, right Duncan?" she squeaked, her voice coming out choked.

Not even waiting for a response, Courtney smashed through the door and raced out into the hallway, wailing like a banshee as so many different emotions ripped through her. Several people turned and looked, bewildered, watching Courtney as she ran. Desperately, Gwen exited the janitor's closet and jogged after Courtney, extending a hand.

"Courtney...!" she cried out. "Courtney!"

Her cries were lost; Courtney was gone.

Duncan followed Gwen out into the hallway, trying to look bored.

"Is she gonna be okay?" Gwen asked, looking at him.

"I didn't really want her to find out that way..." Duncan said, shrugging. That just made Gwen feel guiltier.

"I saw her flirting with Justin yesterday night," Duncan admitted, frowning. "She looked pretty happy with him." He shrugged. "I think it was time for us to break up anyway."

The backpack felt like a ton on Courtney's back. Her eyes were red and she felt like crap. Somehow she'd managed to trudge through the rest of the day without much attention being drawn to herself. Now, since school was out for the day, she took the most circuitous and empty route that she could manage, avoiding everyone.

She was almost out. The day was almost over. But today was Monday and Courtney would have to get through the rest of the week. No relief. She'd failed, she'd broken up with Duncan. Could the day get any worse?

Just before she could trudge out of the school, she found Justin waiting there, his muscular arms folded across his muscular chest.

"I heard that Duncan and Gwen are a hot new item." He raised an eyebrow.

Courtney sighed heavily. "Yeah, I broke up with Duncan," Courtney said, exasperated. "How many more times do I have to frigging say it?"

"I'm single, too, you know," Justin said, shrugging. "I'm not complaining."

Frustrated, Courtney threw off her backpack and chucked it to the ground. She folded her arms tightly across her chest and stood still, shooting daggers at Justin with her eyes. It'd definitely been a mistake on her part to pursue Justin's crush on her and use it to her advantage like she had. Right now, he was one of the last people Courtney wanted to deal with.

"You don't _have _to be single," Justin said, stepping closer to her. "You're smoking hot, feisty, my type of girl..."

Courtney rolled her eyes; she didn't feel like flirting at all right now. Especially with him.

"Do you know how many girls would cut off their limbs to go out with me?"

She continued to give him the silent treatment.

"I can help you become student president," Justin coaxed, pulling at his shirt. "And I could ruin Gwen's reputation. Help you get revenge...?"

"I can do both by myself," Courtney replied.

Justin pulled his shirt off all the way, flexed right in front of Courtney. He walked right up to her and looked directly at her with his ice blue eyes, gave her his most charming smile. Despite herself, Courtney couldn't look away, could even feel the drool collecting on her lower lip. There was just something about him. With each passing second, her level of resistance was lowering.

"Come on, Courtney..." Justin coaxed again, using the sexiest tone of his voice that he could manage.

"I'm not falling for it," Courtney said, even though her words were hollow, even to her.

"I know you like me," Justin said in a honey coated voice. "_Everybody _likes me."

Quickly, Courtney shook her head, snapping herself out of her daze. She closed her eyes, picked up her backpack and walked past Justin without another glance.

"Fine," she said as she exited. "I'll work with you, as a temporary alliance. But I'm _not _your girlfriend."


	10. Chapter 10

-10

Apparently, Courtney's objective is to make Heather and I break up.

We've barely even just started a relationship. That just proves that Cress is a small town if somebody like Courtney already knows about Heather and I becoming a couple and then has an evil mastermind plan to thwart it by Monday morning, two mere days after we just started dating.

I've never felt more helpless in my life than I did surrounded by those girls. They were pressing me to my locker, way too many of them. Now I can truly sympathize with celebrities that have fan girls clinging to their arms, trying to romance them when they aren't interested. The fan girls weren't the worst part. It was after that portly girl kissed me and Heather looked at me, on the verge of tears. She's never looked so devastated and it broke my heart to pieces in my chest. She didn't even ask me for _my_ side of the story...she just went ahead and assumed. I didn't even get one word out. Nobody would listen to me.

Things did work out, but Heather hasn't spoken to me all day. I'm furious at Courtney and I'm so depressed. For the first time since Jose went off to college, I'm locked in my room, completely disheveled, with my stereo turned all the way up, playing metal music, a genre I only listen to when I'm angry or upset. For the first time, I'm deliberately skipping work, sitting on my bed shirtless with my head buried between my knees.

Heather's words keep running through my head, injecting me like snake poison. Yes, some of what she said was true, but that's who I was before I met her. Now I want to be evil _with _her, not against her. As I sit there, I can't help putting Courtney at the forefront of my revenge plans. So many different ideas and options. It's giving me something slightly productive to do...

There was a loud knock on my bedroom door. "ALEJANDRO!" my mother screams. "_¡Subes el sonido! ¡Ahora!"_

Rolling my eyes, I climb across the bed and turn down my stereo. Just as I'm waiting for her to come in and demand to know why I'm not at work, I hear an unexpected voice out in the hall. There's some quiet conversation, then the sound of the door knob jiggling as the door opens.

Heather stands there and I'm not sure how to react. Part of me is burning with absolute fury while the other part desperately wants to wrap my arms around her and kiss her forehead. As she walks in, her hands behind her back, I just give her a steely look, try to appear emotionless.

"What do _you _want?" I ask, looking at her and frowning.

Heather sits down next to me and pulls something out from behind her back: a small box. She looks at me earnestly and opens it, revealing a gaudy piece of jewelry, a silver ring with a bull's face on it. I'm really touched that she took notice of my favorite necklace, but it doesn't quell my silent fury as her nasty words ricochet through my brain.

"Alejandro..." The tone of her voice is begging and she's biting her lip.

I refuse to be taken in by a puppy dog look. No matter how adorable she is. Closing my eyes, I turn away from her and fish around the top of my bed for my shirt.

"I'm really not good at stuff like this..." She says as I pull on my shirt, still turned away from her. "Can't we just rewind to Saturday night again? Please?"

As much as it kills me, I remain obstinate, not even sneaking a peek at her.

"Alejandro..." Her voice is soft. "_Lo siento...Yo sé es temprano decir este, pero...me encanta tú mucho. Estuve mal. Mucho mal. Lo siento..._"

It really warms _mi corazón _when she tries to express how she feels, especially in taking the extra effort to say it in Spanish. There's no way that I can resist her or continue to be silent after that. Trying not to smile, I turn to face her.

"I believe you're looking for the words '_Te quiero'_," I tell her. "Other than that, you're getting better. Much better."

"_Te quiero_," she repeats, smiling at me, knowing that I forgive her. The words make my heart pop like a firecracker.

_She loves me! _I lunge at her and kiss her, holding her close and tight. When I pull away, she smiles again and I loosen my grip on her. I'm surprised when she reaches out and tugs my shirt down, making me realize that I hadn't pulled it on all the way. Then she reaches out and grabs my hand, sliding the ring onto my finger-

"ALEJANDRO!" My eyes snap open. Ever since I got home from school, I've been buried under the covers, sleeping. Groggily, I sit up and piece together that I was just experiencing an extremely pleasant, but unrealistic dream. Let's face it: Heather knows enough Spanish tests, but she's far from forming even a semi-coherent sentence in Spanish.

"Alejandro..." My mother bursts in, alone, looking at me bewilderingly. "You're supposed to be at work. Your manager's called at least seven times now, _hijo_."

Irritated, I roll my shoulders and yawn. "I think she has a crush on me..."

"You can't take advantage of her feelings like that!" my mother cries, horrified. "I raised you better than that!"

"I'm not..." I reply, realizing that I'm not wearing a shirt.

"_Hijo_...is something wrong?" She comes towards me, extending her arms and puckering her lips like a fish, that silly little way she does whenever she's concerned about me.

"I'm taking the day off," I tell her. "I need to go talk to my girlfriend..."

"Girlfriend?" Mom looks at me, confused.

She knows me like the back of her own hand. My brown hair and green eyes may have come from her, but the rest comes from my father. All these years, I saw the way _las mujeres _looked up at him with such longing and lust in their eyes and how devious he was, using that to his advantage, but he always stayed faithful to my mother. I never understood why and as soon as I started taking after him, I laughed at the thought of falling in love like he had. That a relationship was a ball and chain that I didn't want or need.

Then Heather showed up.

"Yes, I have a girlfriend," I say, smiling a little and loving the image that filled my head.

"Oh...I recognize that look!" My mother was getting a bit too excited. "Ignacio looks at me just-"

"I'll be back by ten," I say, finding where I put my shirt.

I pull it on just as I'm walking towards my bedroom door and Mom points at my shirt, shaking her head and stifling a laugh. When I look down, I realize that I haven't pulled it down all the way.

_Deja vu. _

My manager's worried about me. Much to my dismay, she actually brought up that she knew I was dating Heather and told me I could talk to her about it. As soon as she attempted to coerce me into discussing my 'feelings' with her, I cut her off by saying I'd pick up a shift tomorrow and hung up.

After today's disaster, I know that it will take a lot to get the passion and heat of the weekend back. It took so much _tiempo _to get it there in the first place and my heart keeps panging at the thought that tonight probably won't be enough to recapture the emotions and patch everything up. But I'm going to try my best, no matter what sort of effort it takes.

My dad gave me the keys to his fancy silver Carola and let me borrow his guitar. As I drive to Heather's house, I cast glances at the single red rose I picked up for her at the florist's. Fingering the velvety petals of the rose, I can't help of thinking how similar Heather is to a rose: She's absolutely beautiful, but she has a lot of thorns.

Tentatively, I pull into the driveway of her mansion, unannounced. There's a bright red convertible parked just ahead of my car that seems eerily familiar. Usually, her drive way is vacant with the exception of her parents' matching purple Porsches (which are conveniently absent now, too). The presence of this red convertible is bugging me, making my insides prickle.

Feeling my adrenaline spike and my heart knock into overdrive, I try to ignore the feeling of unease and the uncomfortable memories that follow it. All of my self-control runs down the drain when I see a familiar figure walk out the front door. I can feel my anger rising, my animal instincts going into overdrive. The very first thing I want to do is run out of the car and tackle this guy to the ground, punch him until he begs for mercy.

_Jose_. Standing there and looking so smug with that aura of condescending confidence. He's wearing a black silk shirt, tan pants, shoes that look just as expensive as his convertible. His brown hair is cut short like always and his green eyes look as alert and deceptive as ever. Of course, he's managed to become a millionaire in his first two years of college, on top of being valedictorian, MVP of the football, soccer, basketball and swim teams, in his high school. And oh, I can't forget his stupid IQ of over 200 that he never stops bragging about.

_Jose. Jose. Jose. _Dad's favorite. The most popular kid in every town he's ever lived in. _**The very bane of my existence. **_

As if his mere presence weren't enough, Heather walks out, looking _drop dead gorgeous _in a tiny black dress and high heeled shoes, her long hair tied into a bun on her head. Like the stupid gentleman that he is, Jose extends his arm to her.

Without waiting a moment more, I push open my car door and run full tilt towards them, huffing and puffing. When I'm practically inches away from Jose, I glare heatedly into his face, shooting daggers at him as I pull up the sleeves of my shirt. Every fiber of my being is radiating with anger. That's what Jose does to me; I don't think logically around him, I think with my fists.

"Oh...baby brother _Al_," he says coolly, using the dreaded nick name. "What a surprise...! Now isn't a good time, you see. I'm about to take this lovely lady out on the town..."

That condescending tone. The way his eyes narrow. The way he smirks at me as if I'm an inferior insect in comparison to him.

No more talk. I launch out with my fist, but he catches it and I catch the fist he tries to launch into my solar plexus. Then we both lash out with our feet, knocking each other to the ground. Of course, he's as well practiced and reflexive as always. I leap to my feet and hop out of the way just as Jose climbs to his feet, clucking with distaste at the grass stains on his pants.

While he's thoroughly distracted, I recoil and launch myself at him like a spring, knocking him to the ground and pinning him. He's wearing a victorious look and I'm wondering why. Then he kicks me off, planting his shoe right in the middle of my chest. The air is knocked out of my chest, I fly back and land on the ground again. Feeling like a deflated balloon, I watch as Jose looms over me like a dark, imposing shadow.

Adding insult to injury, he plants the heel of his shoe into my cheek and presses down. Hard.

"_You need to leave_," he says in that steely tone he's so good at.

He glares down at me and presses his shoe down harder, just making my fury intensify. Underhanded as I am, I sweep one of my legs out and make Jose topple. I climb to my feet as he regains his balance, wipe the dirt from his shoe off of my cheek.

It's just now that I turn to look at Heather again. She just stands there, with her arms folded across her chest, trying to look innocent. Those eyes are deceptive and when she notices I'm looking at her, she smirks a little and something inside me snaps. I can feel my heart bursting and breaking like glass, shattering into a million pieces.

Jose's in my face again, smirking. With lightning fast reflexes, I avoid three of his shots at my solar plexus. This is getting nowhere. Fast.

I launch out and knee Jose in the crotch, smiling as he crumples and winces. He falls to his knees, tears welling up in his eyes. Jose glares at me and continues to launch out, resisting the impulse to fall all the way over. At first I easily dodge him, but soon enough, he's back on his feet and has his bearings. Relentlessly, he lashes out at me with an endless volley, actually hitting me in the side, the neck, my cheek.

Satisfied, he recoils and then we're both standing there, staring at each other, breathing hard.

"What do you want, Al?" he barks at me.

"To destroy you!"

"Well, I'm here to _obliterate _you, _hermanito_," he spits back at me, grinning.

Before I can say anything else, I watch Heather walk up out of the corner of my eye. I grit my teeth and clench my fists, ready to launch forward and start fighting again.

Jose looks up at her and flashes his trademark "lady killing" smile. Desperately, I feel my heart throb and break again. I don't know how Jose came here and entered the picture, but of course Heather would choose him over me. Jose has a way with _all _women. He can date sixteen women all at once and every one of them would be okay with sharing him with the others. It's just natural that Heather fell in love with him as soon as he-

Heather lashes out and kicks him in the crotch, watching as he falls to the ground, weeping. Casually, she looks at her fingernails, then kicks him again in the leg, making him squawk in pain.

"_Dios mio!" _Jose complains. "_Mierda_! Shit! Shit! _Mierda_!" Then he looks at her and grits his teeth. "_Bitch! _"

Heather walks over to me as I just stand there, feeling a huge mix of emotion. Looking at Jose being in so much pain, I can't help feeling some modicum of delight. To keep from confronting Heather, I look at him, letting myself grin as he glares at me.

"You're a bastard, Al," he declares. "You know I can't resist the ladies...You know what?" He flings his middle finger up at me as he continues to writhe in pain. "You're gonna get it! You're really gonna get it next time, you little shit!"

He continues to cuss and use colorful language, because he's in so much pain and because he thinks I actually beat him for once. I just keep smiling until someone grabs me by the arm and drags me towards my car. When I'm standing by the driver's side of my car, I'm face to face with Heather, who looks way too smug and satisfied right now.

My brain pieces together exactly what she was up to. Part of me is angry while a larger part of me is impressed and if it's possible, I'm just more in love with her than I was before.

"You got to have all of those girls all over you today..." she says, smirking. "I met Jose at a college party Justin dragged me to a week or so ago. He looked so much like you, 'cept with shorter hair...I went up and started talking to him out of curiosity and found out he was your brother. The idiot gave me his number and I've kept it until now..."

I watched as she pulled a slip of paper out of her purse with his phone number on it. She held it up for me long enough to memorize the number and then ripped it to pieces.

Feeling the pieces of my heart fly back together, I reached out and wrapped my arms around Heather's waist, pulling her towards me. Before she could say anything more, I pressed my lips to hers and kissed her, strongly and passionately. It was so powerful; I could feel her melting into me, returning the same amount of force and emotions.

When I pulled away, she looked at me with wide eyes, taking deep breaths as if her breath had been torn out of her lungs. We stared at each other for a minute and I wanted to kiss her again so badly-

"Move your piece of shit, Al!" Jose yelled, honking his horn.

Smirking, I opened the driver's side door and waited while Heather climbed in. Then I got in after her and pulled out of the driveway, deliberately looking away from Jose's laser-beam eyes. Just as I was driving away from Heather's mansion, I rolled down my car window.

"**BASTARD**!" I yelled at Jose, not even turning back to see his reaction.

Before that moment, I'd never uttered a curse word in my life.

"Don't tell me you were going to sing love songs." Heather's looking at my father's guitar as if it's a poisonous spider.

"No..." Yes.

"Ow!" Heather fishes the rose out from under her and I feel like slapping myself for leaving it there.

She fingers the rose carefully and furrows her brows as I turn down another street. "Nobody's ever given me a rose before..."

"Are you sure _Jose _didn't give you one?" I'm still feeling a little bitter inside. Even if I did kiss her, I'm still muddled up in how to feel about all of this right now.

"I'm not wearing this dress for Jose. I'm wearing it for you," Heather says in reply, still looking at the rose. "I knew you were coming..."

Her comment makes my heart leap a little despite itself, but I remain silent, focusing on driving. But I can't help stealing glances at her every now and then. For a few minutes, both of us are silent; me driving, Heather lost in her thoughts while she stares at the rose.

"I...I don't know why I did it..." Heather is speaking more to herself than me. "I think from the first moment I saw you, there was something about you that interested me. I guess I was lying every time I said I wasn't interested..."

She looks out the window. "I...I..." She turns and rests her hand lightly on my wrist. "Stop the car."

Confused, I pull into the parking lot of a nearby grocery store, as far into the lot as I could get. It felt like Heather wanted privacy.

We sat there silence. The bright wash of orange, gold, and purple of sunset painted the sky outside above the ice cream parlor next door. Next to me, Heather looks peculiarly stunning, bronze in the evening sunlight, her face drawn as she frowned and swam in her own personal thoughts. For some reason, the way she kept absentmindedly poking at the rose seemed symbolic.

Today had been so strange and strenuous. Not for the first time, I was pondering my feelings towards Heather, why I felt the way that I did. After her stunt with Jose, the thing with Courtney felt like it had happened a million years ago rather than earlier today. I look at her and wonder what she's thinking, whether or not she's as confused and faraway as I am right now.

The minutes pass like hours and I stare at my watch, the hands of it moving like turtles to me as I wait impatiently and anxiously for something, anything to happen. I feel like Heather's going to say something significant to me. It's not going to be like the short, clipped conversation we were having mere minutes ago, but actually something intelligent.

Another minute passes and I start to consider going into the grocery store to buy a candy bar...just for something to do...

That's when Heather lightly touches my chin, sending shivers down my spine. Gently, she turns my face towards her and I look at her and she looks at me, both of our facial expressions blank and uncharacteristic. Realizing that she has my full attention, a spark enters Heather's eyes and she smiles a little.

"I've been thinking quite a lot about something..." she confesses, stroking my cheek. "I know we just started dating, but I feel like you know me better than anybody. Even Lindsay and Beth and they've been my best friends since fourth grade."

"And when you started flirting with me, I thought you were just another guy who was using me to take Justin's place or just pretending to like me to aggravate me," she continues. "Even then, I started liking you, despite myself. I just kept denying it. I didn't realize it. But after you started tutoring me in Spanish, I knew you were genuine about being interested in me. After that, I really started thinking about you. A lot."

Heather took a deep breath and pulled my face closer towards her.

"I'm not sure if it was obvious or not, but I fell in love with you right after that. From then, all the way to now, I've been in love with you and I still am." She pressed her forehead against mine, found my hand and laced her fingers through mine. "_I love you, Alejandro_."

"_I love you, too_," I reply automatically. "_Te quiero mucho_."

She sighs and lays down, pulling me with her. Then she starts kissing me, and I start kissing her back, reaching up and pulling the bun out of her hair, wrapping my fingers through the loose strands of it and pulling it free. Lightly, Heather starts running her fingers through my hair.

Taking a risk, I stick my tongue into her mouth and she sticks hers into mine, quickly turning the kiss French. _Ooh la la_, her tongue is a graceful snake that knows how to tango; it feels like I just swallowed a whole bottle of hot sauce. My body temperature keeps rising and the shivers running down my back are endless. There's so much heat and fire, we're a pair of exploding fireworks. We continue kissing for several minutes and things just couldn't be any better than right now. This moment.

Finally, Heather pulls away and I sit up so that she can sit up. Her hair is a bird's nest and she scowls playfully at me as she tries to smooth it. Smiling, I join in her attempts, running my fingers through her hair again and relishing in how silky smooth and beautiful it is.

"Technically, we _are_ on a date," Heather says, smiling at me.

"What do you have in mind?" I ask, still feeling her tongue in my mouth.

"Don't take it for granted," Heather warns. "I'm treating you to dinner."

It feels kind of strange that the night is far from over after Heather practically made my entire world spin by telling me that she loved me.

It was all I could think about as we sat in a fancy restaurant with a golden chandelier overhead. She put her hand over mine and smiled at me. We were surrounded by other tables where older couples and rich people taking their parents out to dinner and various others were. Everything was lit only by the soft subdued light of candles.

The rest of the night went by in a happy blur. I remember eating steak, Heather's breath smelling like lobster, the generous tip Heather left for the waitress and her startled reaction. Our conversation was pretty much clipped or just clever flirtatious banter. A few times, much to my delight and surprise, Heather even tried to speak a little bit of _Español_.

My mind was still in my truck, on her words, our first French kiss. All night my heart was in hyper drive and from the way Heather kept looking at me, I could tell that was all that was on her mind, too. Neither of us were hungry for food, we were hungry for each other.

When we were driving home from the restaurant, both of us were silent. For some reason, when we drove past Heather's mansion, I drove a bit more slowly, but I didn't stop. I just ended up driving right past it and Heather didn't protest.

We ended up going to my house. Mom and Dad were asleep, the light in their room was off. Luckily, Jose had decided against any last minute visits. Silently, the two of us went inside and right into my bedroom. Without asking, we both lay down on my bed.

It was silent and dark, just past ten o' clock at night. After such a tumultuous day, the calm and tranquility was exquisite and inviting.

Nothing really happened. The two of us were simply exhausted. We just fell asleep, turned away from each other.

Tonight, I didn't really dream, I just had a dreamless sleep. It was peaceful, pleasant. When the next morning came, I woke up by rays of sunlight pouring in through my closed eyelids and making it painful to keep sleeping. When I opened my eyes, I saw Heather lying a few feet away, struggling to open her own eyes.

Once we were both actually waking up, we continued looking at the other and smiled. My heart was filled with the morning sunshine. If I could, I want every morning to be like this when I wake up.

"Good morning," Heather says.

"_Buenas tardes_," I reply, reaching out and touching her hand.

Today is going to be a good day.


	11. Chapter 11

-11

Another grueling school day.

Kate slumped through the hallway thinking about Arnold, the thin and wiry blond boy with a face full of zits and an intellect the size of the moon. Unknown to most kids, Arnold was the salutatorian of the junior class, even higher up on the class rank. He _had _been the valedictorian until that suave, green-eyed kid Alejandro had showed up.

Thinking about him filled Kate with rage. He thought he was soo _kewl_ just because half the school's female population had a crush on him and he was obviously going to be dethroning Justin soon. Kate saw the way that the glimmer in Arnold's eyes went out when Alejandro was around. Alejandro already had everything, so did he really need the valedictorian rank, too? Arnold had been working his way up the ladder for years, working his butt off to get that rank and then Mr. Perfect swoops in out of nowhere and picks it up in under a month.

Thank God the school day was over. Kate clenched her fists, gritted her teeth. She wanted to go home and punch everything in sight...

Life was so unfair. She'd had a crush on Arnold ever since ninth grade; she thought he was the sexiest guy in school, didn't care about his zits, loved everything about him. Yet he had a huge crush on Courtney. He was so obsessed with the brunette he couldn't see straight. Of course he didn't even know that Kate existed. And she'd been as good a friend to him as Harold for the past two years.

Even Harold knew about her crush on Arnold. It was so obvious, yet Arnold was so cluelessly oblivious.

She sighed heavily, looking at the blissfully empty hallways. Today she'd had to stay late since she had to ask the Spanish teacher for help. Gritting her teeth, she tried to forget that he'd tried to get her to ask _Alejandro _to tutor her since another student he was tutoring had improved phenomenally in her Spanish because of it...

As she walked towards her locker, Kate's eyes popped to the size of bowling balls.

She'd thought that she was the only one skulking the halls, but apparently not: Alejandro had Heather pressed against the lockers and was full-on making out with her. It was such an unexpected sight, Kate found herself frozen to the spot, watching for several seconds. Her gag reflex activated when she thought she saw someone's tongue poking through.

To make matters worse, the couple was _right in front _of her locker. Feeling her heart pound in her chest, Kate thought despairingly of the geography text book she'd left in there and the fact that there was a test tomorrow. Her mind locked as she tried to determine whether or not she really needed it.

Fear escalated through Kate's system, making her brain and heart rocket from the toes of her boots, to her fingers and everywhere inside. One more minute passed and Kate was stuck as Heather and Alejandro pulled away from their embrace and were looking at her, both had narrowed eyes. As soon as Heather turned to whisper in Alejandro's ear, Kate's adrenaline kicked in.

She turned on her heel and took off running, hearing the heels of her shoes reverberating through the halls. Seconds later, she heard another pair of footsteps behind her. Quickly she looked over her shoulder and she saw that she was being pursued: _Alejandro_.

Sick with fear, Kate took off even faster, making a quick turn. Images flared through her mind and she vividly remembered the AV club meeting that morning:

Mrs. Smith's small, whitewashed classroom. Harold and Arnold, president and vice-president of the AV club, stood at the front of the room. All of the members were present and waiting eagerly for what _top secret _project Vice President Arnold had in store for them all.

Her own stomach had been full of butterflies and Kate could remember smiling so brightly, how proud she was of Arnold and how much she loved the benign smile on his face. The meeting had progressed with Arnold raising his fancy camcorder for everyone to see, hooking it up to a lap top, then projecting the video footage onto the nearest wall. As each clip played, Kate could remember how many times her stomach had clenched and turned over.

The first one was of Alejandro's and Heather's private meeting in the janitor's closet, a.k.a. the "make-out room". How they whispered to each other, how close they'd been to kissing. Then the next clip was of a bunch of girls tackling Alejandro at his locker, the next of Alejandro and Heather kissing in a truck, the two of them going out to eat. Then there was one more with a fake, tearful and "heartfelt" confession from the king of the school himself, Justin. When Arnold was done showing the clips, Kate was gripping the bottom of her plastic chair, shaking her head.

_That's such an invasion of privacy and it's obviously a scandal_ she thought to herself. _Oh Arnold...my dear sweet Arnold, why? I don't like Alejandro or Heather, but I wouldn't do this to them..._

She gripped the chair harder as a realization hit her. _Courtney..._

The rest of the scene blurred in her head: Arnold talking about the AV club making Courtney's campaign video, that it needed to be top secret, explaining how it was going to be set up...

Then Arnold's hand touching her shoulder, the shivers that ran down her spine when he did.

"Hey Kate," he said when he pressed the camera into her hands. "You're the best photographer in AV, so...could you get one more vid of Alejandro and Heather. A really...steamy one?"

Kate had looked at him, her morals shaken up. The look on his face, the way his brown eyes were sparkling and the quirk of his grin. Her heart swelled and despite her screaming, protesting conscience, she'd said: "Yeah."

In the rush of the moment, Arnold had kissed her cheek: a wet, sloppy kiss. That was exactly what'd fueled her determination and made her anxious all day, made her heavily pine for Arnold, made her think bitter thoughts about Alejandro when she was actually furious at herself.

Kate snapped back to reality. The bulky shape of Arnold's camcorder was in her jeans pocket and she could see the video that she'd captured on it play in her mind's eye. She'd done Arnold's dirty work; she was guilty and she knew it.

After so desperately tearing through the halls, Kate found herself backed against a wall. Her stomach clenched into a fist as she turned around and found both Alejandro and Heather advancing on her, looking angry and like a pair of hungry lions that had successfully cornered their prey.

"I know that Courtney likes to employ nerds to do her dirty work..." Heather said nastily, walking towards Kate and easily towering over her since she was easily a foot taller. "I saw you lurking around earlier today. Hand it over."

A lump formed in Kate's throat and her eye twitched when she saw Heather open and close her hand like a claw. Kate couldn't breathe when she noticed a trash can nearby in the corner of her eye. Memories of freshman year played through her mind and she started hyperventilating as she saw herself covered in trash, paper towels, chewed gum...

She could feel her cheek burning like fire where Arnold had kissed it. Her eyes widened as her ethics finally kicked in. All of Arnold's footage was on the stupid video camera in her pocket...She could still make things right and silence her writhing conscience!

Turning away from Heather, Kate took a deep breath and pulled the camcorder out of her pocket. With Arnold filling her mind's eye, Kate raised the camcorder, high above her head. "Forgive me," she whispered.

"Hand it over!" Heather growled, taking a step towards Kate.

Without hesitating any longer, Kate chucked the camcorder towards the ground with every ounce of her strength. A rush of emotion and energy flooded her veins as she watched the camcorder explode into lots of little pieces. Angrily, she stomped at the remaining pieces, pressing at them and crunching them until she was satisfied with the wreckage.

Breathing hard, Kate looked down at the pieces, then turned to see the shocked and confused expressions on Alejandro's and Heather's faces. Absently, Kate reached up and felt moisture on her face.

She was crying.

Without waiting any longer, Kate took off running, taking Alejandro's and Heather's hesitation as a chance to escape. But she knew she was probably going to be smelling like rotten banana peels tomorrow.

Kate ran and ran, several blocks, down streets, past a bunch of houses, not at all sure of where she was going. Everything was a giant blur and she was so confused. Her entire body felt like an electric current, driving her forward, making her run as fast as her legs allowed her to.

Life came back to her in a rush when the loud honk of a car horn blared in her ears. It was a bright red convertible and the driver was glaring at her. A pair of mean, angry green eyes.

"What the hell_-" _The driver stopped mid-sentence.

Confused, Kate kept looking at him, blinked. He kept looking at her. Their gazes were locked; Kate couldn't look away.

Drivers behind the red convertible started honking their horns and cussing at the top of their lungs. Weirdly enough, Kate felt herself floating as she walked over to the side of the road. The red convertible followed her and the driver parked his car, got out, and walked around it.

Their gazes locked again and Kate had a faint thought trickle into her mind: _He kinda looks like Alejandro..._

Surprise flooded into Kate when the driver gently took her hand and squeezed it. His hand was big and soft; his arms were muscular and he wore a sleeveless black shirt. His hair was brown and short and his mean expression had been replaced by a soft, amicable one. With her hand in his, Kate leaped a little involuntarily when she felt a bunch of sparks. Electricity.

"I'm Jose," he said in a soft voice.

"K-kate," she replied, blushing.

Her body was in revolt once she realized what was happening, yet she loved how he was looking at her. Jose was looking at her, mesmerized, as if under a spell. He, a complete stranger, was looking at her the way Kate had always longed for Arnold to look at her.

"You're the most beautiful _chica _I've ever seen," Jose said, leaning in and cupping her chin. "You're so smoking hot. It's a shame we've never met before. I'll bet all the guys at parties tell you that, don't they? Hey, do you have a boyfriend?"

He was being so forward, showering her with so much attention that Kate became quickly flustered. With her heart hammering in her chest, Kate could feel herself breathing hard, hot all over. Instead of answering his questions, Kate pulled his hand from under her chin, wrapped her arms around him and kissed him.

The kiss was so electric and Kate felt shivers race down her spine when Jose wrapped his own arms around her, leaned towards her. He was receptive and that shocked Kate. An entire minute passed and then Kate pulled away, feeling intensely embarrassed and confused. Yet the stranger was smiling and thrilled, his eyes as wide as his grin.

"I like you already," he said, obviously not as fazed by the kiss as Kate was. "Wanna go out to dinner? Let's get to know each other better or...it's up to you."

He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and Kate couldn't help smiling and laughing.

-Alejandro-

Tuesday was strange, yet wonderful. Every spare moment, I grabbed Heather and hugged her, kissed her, made her know how much I loved her.

After Monday night, I'm grounded. Dad understands, but he has the wrong idea about what happened. Though it doesn't really matter since he's going to use his charms to convince Mom to get rid of the punishment. And, surprisingly, Heather didn't get any punishment at all. Her parents are _scared _of her...

To be honest, I can understand why, but that's what I absolutely love about this _mujer_. How relentless and powerful she is, just everything about her overall.

Heather wasn't the most interesting part of my day, surprisingly. We overheard a nerd at lunch bragging about carrying out a plan for Courtney and how that was going to get him in her favor. Then, when the two of us had shuffled off to a supposedly deserted hallway to make out between fifth and sixth period, I saw a short brunette lumbering around behind a trash can and I could make out the distinct red light of a camera.

I seduced a nerd from the AV club to tell me where the brunette's, Kate's, locker. Then Heather and I set up a trap and she fell right into it: The girl looked at us with deer-in-headlights eyes as we staged a make-out session right in front of her locker. That's the only time we'll publicly kiss in front of someone, especially a little twerp like that. She turned and ran away, like the guilty little swine that she was.

We cornered Kate and then, in a very bizarre twist, she destroyed the camcorder, stomped on it, then ran away, weeping.

Today, Wednesday, I've discovered a possible accomplice in the overall struggle to take Courtney and that dolt Justin down. Between second and third periods, I made sure to lurk around the janitor's closet; I'm very observant, so there's not much that I _don't _know about this high school by now. Just as predicted, Duncan and his new flame come walking out, both of them smiling as if they're sharing a secret. I'm more than familiar with that feeling right now.

The Goth girl walks away, waving and smiling, Duncan smiling and winking back. As soon as she's gone, I come out of my hiding place and make my presence known.

"Hello Duncan."

He looks at me, blinks, then smirks. "Hey, I heard what you did to Justin at Heather's party! Niceee!" He nods, as if approving of me.

"I heard that you have a particular talent for...defacing school property?" I'm just going to go straight to the point with this. From what I've observed, there's no need to beat around the bush to obtain Duncan's assistance in the tasks I want to perform.

His eyes dart around, then he leans in closer. "Yeah?"

I've piqued his interest now. "Do you know where Courtney's locker is?"

Duncan raises an eyebrow. "Yeah. Why-?"

I whisper my plan in his ear. Then he smirks and gives me a thumbs up, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"I like the way you think," he says. "Count me in!"

Duncan and I meet up again, toting backpacks, once everyone else has wandered off to lunch.

Locker A1is Courtney's locker. I smirk, folding my arms behind my back, waiting as Duncan easily puts in the combination and opens it with the comment: "She forgot she told me her locker combo."

Courtney's locker is bare and organized, one singular "Vote for Courtney" poster hanging on her locker door. There's several plastic buttons on the top shelf and all of her binders and text books are arranged...alphabetically. I walk over, scoop up the buttons and stick them in my pants pocket.

"You got the surveillance cameras, right?" Duncan asks as he pulls a permanent marker out of his backpack.

"I deactivated them as soon as I got to school this morning," I reply, smirking to myself as I recall my successful handiwork.

"Nicee."

I watch as Duncan uncaps the permanent marker and promptly draws a mustache and goatee on Courtney's face on her poster.

"That'll drive her nuts," he replies when I raise an eyebrow.

I go about putting her binders in a random order, throw her buttons in a nearby trash can. Of course Duncan gives me the same expression I just gave him, but little disruptions are just the beginning. Grinning, I reach into my own backpack and pull out the cou de gras. Duncan's eyes widen and he shakes his head.

"Holy shit," he says as I walk towards Courtney's locker. "You are bad."

"Plug your nose," I reply simply, pulling a nose plug out of my own pants pocket.

I put my own nose plug on as I lower the jar towards Courtney's locker. It cost me a Tuesday evening at Owen's house, patience, and leftover pizza from Heather's party to get it-an experience I'd like to forget as soon as I can and never ever recount-to get a jar full of Owen's most toxic, pungent farts. It's as unpleasant as it sounds. Quickly, I unscrewed the jar lid and watched as the green fumes poured out of the jar, quickly filling Courtney's locker.

There was a large rush of air and I could feel my eyes watering. I screwed the lid of the jar back on and Duncan rushed over, slamming the locker door shut. Both of us run away from the locker with teary eyes, coughing.

When we're far enough away, I can still smell the odor, but not as strong as before. We both plug our noses anyway.

"That was awesome!" Duncan says, punching the air.

"I have many other schemes in mind..." I say, hating the way my voice sounds with my nose plugged. "Are you interested?"

"Duh."

Lunch is over and Duncan and I are peering around the corner.

Courtney's surrounded by a group of unfamiliar girls, a blond boy straggling beside her, looking lovestruck. He's the only boy and...I can't help smirking when I notice that Kate's in the group as well. So far, my day just keeps looking up more and more. I'm hitting two proverbial birds with one stone!

"What smells like...rotten eggs?" Courtney's plugging her nose and looks repulsed.

"Owen's around here somewhere," another girl says. Several girls start discussing Owen at length. Groaning, Courtney walks towards her locker and my apprehension starts to grow as she turns the combination on her locker door. Her eyes are watering and her lips are puckered like a fish's as she does this.

Then she pulls open the locker door and all hell breaks loose. A huge green cloud oozes out with a rush of air, as if Owen himself were right there and this was the collection of an entire day's farting. Everybody takes one whiff, their eyes widen and water.

Two girls scream. Kate faints. Then Courtney faints and the starstruck nerd following her like a lovesick puppy falls to his knees and tries to perform CPR on her. Disgusted, Courtney slaps him, breathes in again, then faints. _Again_.

Next to me, Duncan's fallen on his back and is rolling back and forth, laughing. I stand there for a few seconds, unsure how to react, then I collapse into a tide of laughter.

I roll back and forth, laughing like I haven't laughed in years. I laugh until tears start rolling out of my eyes and my sides start to ache. Even then, I'm still laughing. Eventually, somebody's leaning over me and I instantly stop laughing. She pulls me to my feet and then kisses my cheek, touches my hand and squeezes it.

"Good job," Heather whispers, making my heart glow. "It was pretty funny, seeing Courtney's hair sticking up like that..."

We both laugh at the image.

"That's just the beginning," I tell her. "It's your turn next."

"I know," Heather says with an evil smile. "I'm more than ready."


	12. Chapter 12

-12

My parents have a bizarre relationship; they've always lived together in the same house or nearby, but they've had at least two trial separations and the week Mom got this new job in Cress, they had a divorce. I've only seen my father try going on a date with one other woman and nothing really happened. Mom's done nothing. They act like they're still married, so I have a feeling they're going to end up getting re-married later on this year.

Their divorce doesn't bother me, because I've always known that they'd never really leave each other. If anything, I'd say that the two of them are more in love with each other than they have ever been before. Just yesterday, I caught them making out in the kitchen. Not necessarily a very pleasant mental image, but sound proof...

It's Thursday right after school and I'm putting on the stupid, unappealing uniform that I have to wear to work. The shirt I have to wear is so baggy it conceals my well-defined muscles, my pants are just as baggy, and I have to wear a baseball cap with a stupid-looking cartoon character with a huge mustache holding a pizza embroidered into it. I've never really been very fond of cartoons; they can be so childish and irritating at times.

Sighing, I stick my wallet in my back pocket and psyche myself up about going to my lame job.

"ALEJANDRO!" Mom calls.

I walk out into the living room, wondering what she could possibly want. It's a rare occasion for Mom to actually call out to me for or about anything, so it must be fairly important.

Dad and Mom are sitting on the couch, Dad's arm draped around Mom's shoulders. They look like a teenage couple, my father kissing her cheek over and over while her green eyes sparkle and she giggles.

"We have big news!" Mom announces, smiling.

My stomach drops at that for some reason. Obviously, they're going to announce that they're getting re-married, so I don't understand the queasiness or sense of unease that fills me. Mom is silent for a moment for that dramatic effect or flair that she loves so much; my artistic talents come from her.

"I'm pregnant!" she says.

While she and Dad beam and look at each other with appraisal, I feel the world drop out from under my feet. About a week ago, Mom and Dad were embroiled in one of the biggest arguments they've ever had, got a divorce, and now they're having a _baby_? That doesn't compute to me, but what really disturbs me is that I'm...

...I'm going to be _un hermano grande_?

"I really hope it's a girl this time!" Mom squeals with delight.

"Me too," Dad agrees, nuzzling her. "I've always been fond of the name Pilar..."

"_Lo m__e gusta, lo me gusta_..." Mom giggles excitedly.

Still dazed, I walk out the door and right into my truck. The drive to work is a complete blur as memories of how Jose terrorized me throughout my entire life played through my head like a film reel. For awhile, my head felt like it was off and up in the clouds. Several times, I attempted to focus, but I just couldn't.

I behaved like a robot and operated entirely on auto pilot, the name Pilar running through my head.

Every time I blinked, I could see Jose pointing at me and laughing maniacally. He's always had a knack for evil laughter amongst his extensive repertoire of talents. He always pushed at me, poked me, teased me. In a sense, he's part of the reason that I'm the relentless and powerful _hombre _that I am now. Jose always liked to be so superior to me, so I've always felt the need to be superior. To be at my optimum efficiency. Dominant. A leader.

_Would I do what Jose did to me...to Pilar? _

Twenty minutes into my actual shift my manager told me that she wanted me to stay on-site today and work the cash register. She was training a new employee, a cute and shy girl with black hair and big gray eyes. Not my type, but she caught my eye.

For an hour, I watch as people either order quickly or spend five minutes staring at the menu above my head. I'm pretty much running on bored but precise and efficient autopilot with the exception of a family with a whiny little toddler that comes in. The toddler spends six minutes, unable to make up his mind, and there's a disgruntled line of people forming behind him and his family. The redhead single mom looks at me apologetically and I feel like my head's about to burst from frustration-

That's when a way too familiar face strides in through the front door.

_Jose_. And strangely enough, he only has one _chica _with him, a girl my own age with brown hair wearing a blue dress.

Gritting my teeth, I try to focus on the cash register and my current, albeit mundane, task. That's when the toddler screams, my anger piques, and I'm just at my breaking point. Furrowing my brow, I just punch in an order, rip off a number and give it to the mother.

"Ten ninety-five," I grumble through gritted teeth.

"But...Billy hasn't-"

"He seemed to bring up the lasagna several times," I say as calmly as I can, trying to maintain my composure. "I apologize ma'am, but the line is getting very long and I have other customers I need to attend-"

"I don't freaking want lasagna!" Billy shrieks.

That's when Jose evaporates out of nowhere, leaning on the counter, an eyebrow raised.

"Hey Al, ¿_que pasa?_" Jose grins.

"I don't have time to deal with you right now, Jose," I tell him pointedly, watching the single mom and the customer behind her start to bicker.

"That's no way to talk to your _hermano_," he says, smug as always. "I'm here with a cute little lady. I think you might know her from school. Maybe you could get us something on the house? Hmm?" He leans towards me, narrowing his eyes. "_I haven't forgotten about Monday, you mierda pequeña_."

I roll my eyes and lean away from him.

"Ma'am, are you going to order or not?"

The woman has walked away, dragging her little twerp by the hand. I'm looking at an irritated, middle-aged balding man who has his arms folded.

"_I _do want the lasagna," he barks, slapping a twenty dollar bill on the counter top. "Took long enough..." He grumbles under his breath as I take the twenty and start divvying up his change while throwing the receipt for the previous order away.

I can feel Jose's laser beam eyes, see the way he impatiently grips the counter top. There's customers in line shooting him confused looks and death stares. It's hard to ignore him, but I manage to do so, but it requires a huge amount of will power on my part. As I ring up the rest of the customers, he continues to stay there, whispering "_mierda pequeña" _or hissing "Al" every chance he gets.

As soon as all of the other customers are done, Jose sidles right up in front of the cash register. I've reached the very end of my patience by now.

"What do _you_ want?" I growl angrily at him, my tone steely.

"I know your little bitch of a girlfriend Heather wants to be class president," Jose says in a snide tone, just making me want to sock him more. "That's not going to happen this year..."

"Should you really be telling me your stupid plans for revenge, Jose?" I ask in a similarly nasty tone to his. "But then again, you always did have a knack for stupidity _and _theatrics."

"Don't you want revenge on Heather, _mi hermano_?" he asks, giving me his oil slick smile. "She _was _going to cheat on you with _me_. Good choice on her part in my opinion, but truly...That's not your style, Alejandro...You let her get off scott free?"

I didn't know what tack he was trying to employ on me now, but the fact that he was calling me something other than "Al" or "little shit" implied that he wanted something, wanted to try to use his powers of charisma and persuasion on me. Not going to happen. I know every one of his stupid little tricks and tactics.

"As superior as I am to you and how angry I am with you about Monday..." Jose takes a deep breath. "I'm in a generous mood. I don't blame you. I'd expect as much from you." He folds his arms behind his back and leans towards me. "You're a much better candidate for class president. I know how much you love power, Alejandro. All of the student body, in your control. And I could help you get there-"

"_Jose_!"

The brunette that came with him runs over. She wraps her arms around his waist and then he turns and...there's a genuine smile on his face. That's something I'd never expect in a million eons from him of all people. Then he turns and kisses her on the forehead and she smiles back. He whispers to her...tenderly...in Spanish in her ear and her eyes light up.

"Quit being so dirty!" she laughs, slapping him. "Did you order the pizza yet?"

Jose's still smiling, taking her hand. "No, there was a pretty long line Kate. Give me a minute..."

"Hey Alejandro!" Kate looks up at me, smiles and waves when she recognizes me.

Then she turns back to Jose and they continue their flirtatious banter.

The display in front of me is the same despicable display it is with Jose and any of the millions of girlfriends-of-the-week that's he had. What surprises me is who it is this time. Of all people, it's that Kate girl from the AV club.

The puzzle pieces are right here. It would have made more sense that of all the girls Jose would date from my school that it'd be Courtney, but then again, Kate would be an extremely unexpected candidate. I roll my eyes as he pretends to be "totally into" that nerd from the AV club. To be honest, if I wasn't dating Heather and she looked like she did right now, I'd definitely be flirting with her. She's nowhere near as gorgeous as Heather, but she looks prettier here than she did when Heather and I cornered her in the hallway yesterday.

Though, that's just it: Jose makes girls naturally go the extra mile in their looks.

It feels so rewarding to chuck the roll of toilet paper as far as I can throw it. The roll sails through the air like a snow white comet, landing on the roof of the house and rolling across until it leaves at least three feet of paper behind it.

Another roll of toilet paper joins mine, twisting like a perfectly thrown football before it lands. This roll unwinds, gathering speed as it goes, and then dives off the side of the roof and keeps going until all of the toilet paper has been unrolled. Duncan runs over and snags the now empty toilet paper roll just before it hits the ground. Smiling, I give him a high five and then his girlfriend Gwen leans over and pecks him on the cheek.

I'm beginning to become quite fond of Duncan, possibly to the point where I consider him _mi amigo_. He doesn't question my revenge schemes and he's quite interesting company. It's interesting how similar we are considering he's been in jail and I haven't. Though, then again, I've never really been caught and I could charm my way out of a crime with just the right facial expression. Not even Mom can resist my puppy face.

Gwen's a prospective friend and ally, too. Her enthusiasm towards this was just as vibrant as Duncan's I'm happy to report.

"Think that's enough toilet paper?" Duncan asks, smirking.

"It looks like it was hit by a snow storm!" Gwen concurs, trying to keep from snickering.

"Hey, Alejandro." Duncan has that mischievous glint in his eyes. "You got something else up your sleeve, don't you?"

Gwen plugs her nose and waves at the air. "I can definitely smell it!"

I walk towards the front porch of Justin's mansion, pulling out a brown paper bag from the plastic bag I left lying beside a tree.

"That's not...?" Duncan's eyes widen and he looks horrified. I know exactly what he thinks.

"Definitely not," I say, cringing at the thought. "This is a little...present special from Heather's orange cat Bart. He doesn't much appreciate how Justin treated his mistress and neither do I. Can I borrow your lighter, Duncan?"

Duncan grins and hands me his black lighter with flames painted on the side.

Just barely tolerating the smell myself, I run the rest of the way towards Justin's porch, just below the level of the darkened windows. Carefully, I place Bart's package on the porch and quickly light it. The stench is unbearable and I'm just barely able to ring Justin's doorbell and race back into the shadows.

Duncan, Gwen, and I peer around the wall of Justin's mansion. The paper bag is quickly being eaten and licked at by orange and yellow flames. All three of us have to plug our noses just to vox out the stench. As expected, the front door flies open and Justin, in all of his idiotic and egotistical glory, steps out in no shirt and striped pajama pants. He's yawning and bored for a mere second, but then his eyes are wide and he's screaming.

Then, like the idiot he is, he tries to mash out the fire with his slippered foot. Over and over he stomps and the three of us are snickering, trying to muffle our laughter with our hands. Soon enough he puts the fire out, then realizes something...He lifts his slippered foot.

"Oh, shit," he says.

Stifling laughter, the three of us disperse into the shadows of the night. Mission accomplished.

I'm laughing as I run two or three blocks to where my truck is parked in the library parking lot. It's ironic that Justin lives close to the library considering that he's probably never been in that facility one day of his life.

Neither Courtney or Justin saw either one coming. As I climb into my truck and drive, I'm smirking. Things are going so superbly. Of course I expect Justin and Courtney to retaliate. As a matter of fact, I already know _every_ one of their next moves and so does Heather. Next week is the big election for class president, so Heather and I have quite a bit more groundwork to lay out. What happened today and yesterday are just the beginning.

Heather's turn has officially started, but I'm still going to cause little disruptions. It'll keep the public churning and unsettled and the more stirred up Courtney and Justin are and the more suspects there are, the tougher it will be to point fingers at any particular individual.

Jose may think he's being clever, but his revenge plans are playing directly into mine as well. Jose may think he's superior, but he never really thought out or considered _all _of the details or altered the plan if needed like I do. Thinking about how stellar things are going, especially in this early stage, has greatly improved my mood. I feel so great!

I weave through the streets, watching as other cars pass by. At one red light, there's a guy leaning out the window yelling at the driver of a yellow Volkswagen Beetle. Instead of driving home, I park my truck a few streets away from where Heather's mansion is. It's almost 11: 00 at night and I've secretly been planning on and wanting to do this for awhile now.

Stealthily, I run behind bushes and tree trunks until I reach Heather's mansion. Then I creep around until I'm in her back yard. The grass is so ridiculously short and there's a _solid gold_ fountain in the middle of the brick patio. Silently, I look around and I can feel my heart start pumping when I see Heather standing at her bedroom window, a silhouette on her purple curtains.

As if this is a cliché scene out of a romance novel, there's a wooden trellis that's propped up against the wall of the mansion. There's bright red flowers poking through the diamond shaped slats in the trellis, their petals forming a star shape near the center. I noticed the trellis on a previous Spanish tutoring session. Smiling to myself, I race over to it and start to climb, more nimble and agile than a monkey.

Those various and rigorous rock climbing lessons really paid off: I'm up within a minute or so. Luckily, Heather's still hovering near the window. To be cheesy, I pick one of the flowers intertwined in the trellis, then I lightly rap on the frame around her window. Within seconds, I see the curtains pulled aside, then I wait as patiently as I can while she undoes the latches of the window and opens it.

She sticks her head out the window and her eyes widen when she sees me outside.

"Alejan-"

I cut her off with a kiss, a long and passionate one. My perch is precarious, but I love the mix of vertigo and the way my heart keeps exploding like a rocket. When I pull away, she looks at me, wearing my smile. Then, as if we're thinking the same thing, she pulls me through the window into her bedroom.

It feels so strange as I climb to my feet and look at the purple walls, the ceiling, how the room is slightly curved. But my focus isn't really on the room: Heather's only wearing a towel, nothing else. Her sopping wet hair hangs straight on her shoulders, falls into her feet. I can see the water rolling off of her hair, dripping around her neck and down her face.

I stare at her fluffy purple towel, just keep looking her up and down from head to foot. Of course, my heart's jumping around in me like a pin ball and I feel like a fire alarm as so many thoughts race through my mind. Without thinking, I reach up towards the buttons of my shirt and start idly touching the top one. The look on my face probably gives away exactly what's on my mind.

As soon as she realizes it, Heather's face turns crimson and she bites her lip. Then she turns and runs out of the bedroom, behind a door.

I stand there, staring at that door, feeling my stomach drop. My mood was up in the clouds, but now I've hit rock bottom. I just keep staring at the door, feeling stupid, while my body temperature keeps rising. A minute later, Heather exits the bathroom, wearing her pajamas.

We're both feeling awkward and stand there, staring at each other. Finally, not knowing why in the world I came over her anyway, I walk towards the window again. She reaches out and grabs my wrist, stops me, turns me around.

"Don't go," she says, pulling me closer, into an embrace.

I sigh and hug her back, placing my head on top of hers and stroking her cheek.

"I just really wanted to see you..." I murmur.

"I was hoping you'd come," she says back.

There's a long silence. Something seems to be hidden in that silence and I can't figure out what, but I can sense that something is amiss. A second later, Heather pulls away from me and folds her arms across her chest, then looks down guiltily at the floor.

"There's something I should have told you..." she admits in a strained voice. "You know how I told you that I met Jose at a party Justin took me to?"

She looks up at me with furrowed brows.

"Jose was there with one of his girlfriends. It was Elaine; she was my rival in my freshman year of high school." Heather narrows her eyes. "She was the one I fought with to get together with Justin. That fight got her expelled and she's been wanting vengeance on me ever since...The night of the party she kept flirting with Justin and tried to get him to break up with me..."

Heather shrugs. "So, I cheated on Justin with Jose. She saw me kissing Jose and that broke them up."

Frowning, she looks over at me.

"I saw her in the office today..." she admits. "She's found a way to get back into Cress..."


	13. Chapter 13

-13

"Come on, Alejandro!" Carlos looked at me with an encouraging smile.

Feebly, I kicked the soccer ball towards him, aiming at the goal. Instead, it just hit the side of the net and bounced off. A few feet away, Jose was standing there with his arms folded and a snarky look on his face.

"That sucked, Al!" he jeered, sticking his tongue out at me. "You suck at soccer! You suck at soccer!"

He continued blowing raspberries at me, teasing me, calling me that dreaded nick name over and _over. _It made me so angry, made my blood boil. In the background, Carlos kept telling Jose to "shut up" and "leave Alejandro alone", but his words remained unheard.

I'd just had enough. Clenching my fists, I ran full-tilt towards Jose and lashed out at him with a huge volley of fists. Mindlessly, I kept punching and punching, none of my blows hitting Jose. Eventually, Carlos pulled me off of Jose, but I just kept kicking and punching ferociously at the air, screaming; Carlos' grip on me never loosened.

Even when I stopped lashing out at the air, Jose flashed me a victorious smirk.

"I'm. Telling. Mama," he said, before tilting his head back and laughing.

"_Alejandro_..._Alejandro_..." Gruff, angry whisper.

My eyes snap open and I'm lying somewhere. Somewhere dark and unfamiliar. Momentarily, I'm disoriented and confused, my mind reeling as I search for Jose in the dark. He's going to pay for telling me that I "suck" at soccer! _I do not! _

"Alejandro..." A light comes on.

I roll over and come back to reality. I just had a nightmare based on one of my memories, a memory I've been trying so hard to forget.

Heather glares at me, lips curled back and bags under her eyes. She leans towards me, gritting her teeth and looking grumpy. Right now, I'm not really in the mood to deal with her being grumpy. All I know is that I need to get home and, if I'm lucky, I'll escape the wrath of _Mama_.

"I didn't know you talked in your sleep," she said bitterly.

"Yes, and you are as quiet as freshly fallen snow," I reply sarcastically. She snores as loud as a leaf blower or a lawn mower. I'm honestly surprised that I was ever able to fall asleep with all of that noise...

"Jose!...Jose!" she mocks, rolling her eyes. "I need some damn sleep, Alejandro. I've had a rough night. If you're gonna be making noise, then you can just go home."

"_You _had a rough night?" Now she's pushed a button: I'm mad. "_You _don't have a damn job like I do, or an asshole older brother! And _I'm_ practically doing your dirty work! I could be student president if I wanted to! I could crush-"

"Shut. Up." Heather's glaring at me. She grabs my shirt collar and snarls at me. "Shut up."

We're both silent for a moment, glaring at each other. Now that I think about it, I don't know why I'm dating her. Or working with her to "rule the school" when I could do it so much better on my own. Sitting here, staring into those fiery eyes, I felt like arguing.

I want to argue, to use cuss words. I feel very strange: drained and tired and angry. Heather griped to me about Elaine for an entire hour, telling me about how they'd been _enemigos _since second grade, how Elaine was such a jerk and how she stole _all _of Heather's friends and boyfriends. Elaine's one goal in life was to ruin Heather's life. Thinking about it, Elaine sounds very similar to Heather, like her twin. Apparently, similar personalities butt heads.

My stomach knots up as another _mucho_ _terrible _memory wells up. At one point, I actually used to admire and look up to Jose. _I wanted to be him. _That's when he started making fun of me and calling me "Al" and belittling every little thing about me. I look at Heather again, remember that passionate confession Monday night, how close we've been all week.

She was the one I really wanted to see tonight. As much fun as the prank was, she was the biggest thing on my mind.

Now I _don't _want to be angry and competitive right now. I'll figure all of this out tomorrow. Right now, I'm really tired and I want to sleep...

Feeling my eyelids drooping heavily, I could see that Heather wanted to say something else. Quietly, I lean over and kiss her to silence her. Then I pull away and wrap my arms around her, lower her to the bed, then pull her close to my chest. It feels nice to hold her so close: she's so warm and her hair is so strangely silky and soft.

"Alejandro..." she whispers, confused.

"_Lo siento_." I murmur, closing my eyes. Then I fall right back asleep.

When I open my eyes again, I try to blink away the sunlight. I'm awake and this time I know exactly where I am. "Heather...?"

I roll over and find myself on an empty bed. I know I'm going to get grounded again after what happened Monday night; I wonder where Heather went; I have to deal with Courtney and Justin; Owen's probably going to try to get me to go on a double date with him and Izzy (Heavens, no!). Elaine and Kate are probably going to appear on the ballot...

_Dios...no me importa..._

I close my eyes and fall back asleep again. I'm just so tired right now. All I want to do is sleep, sleep until the sun sets again, until the moon rises, and then until the sun rises again.

_Mmmm...quiero dormir mucho_. _Quiero Heather y silencio y noche y cada semana por durmiendo...No Jose. No Mama. No Courtney, Justin, Elaine, Kate. Solamente Heather y me..._

"Alejandro...?"

I wake up again and Heather's looking down at me. Groggy, I look up at her and smile drunkenly.

"Today's a day off," she says, flashing a smile back at me. "A pipe exploded or something...but whatever."

I just nod and fight falling back asleep.

"It's almost 9," Heather adds, pulling me up into a sitting position.

Frowning, I look at the digital clock. Just as she said, it's 9 o' clock. At my house, I'm usually the first one awake at six o' clock everyday. My stomach twists, but I'm too tired to really feel anything else.

Much to my misfortune, I fall right back down, onto the bed and crash into sleep again.

Heather rolled her eyes and sat on the edge of the bed, looking at her sleeping boyfriend. She'd never admit it to him, but he reminded her of a peaceful and handsome angel when he was asleep. Idly, she reached over and ran her fingers through his hair.

Last night, when he'd unexpectedly cocooned her in his arms, she could remember hearing his heart beat: strong and steady. He was so unlike any other guy Heather had dated and their relationship was even stranger. When she'd been in his arms, she'd felt a very strange feeling with him: security and safety. Before and usually, it was fireworks, passion, tingles, a racetrack of hormones. That was still what it was.

Lately, Heather was starting to question whether or not it was a good idea to date him. Had she only started dating him because she couldn't stand the thought of being alone?

Alejandro rolled over and Heather pulled her legs up under her chin. He was out like a light.

Heather's reverie was interrupted when she heard her cell phone ring. She ran over to her purse, opened it and didn't even bother to look at the caller ID as she fished it out: she knew exactly who it was.

"What do you want?" she hissed into her phone, narrowing her eyes.

"Look out your window...," Elaine's sickly sweet voice replied, her tone almost singsong.

Heather's stomach dropped as she walked towards her window. As soon as she looked out, she saw Elaine standing there, smirking with her fists on her hips. Courtney and Justin stood on either side of her looking equally vicious. Instantly, Elaine saw Heather looking out and waved up at her, showing off an extremely high-tech lime green cell phone.

Gritting her teeth, Heather pulled her violet curtains closed and peered over her shoulder at the sleeping figure of Alejandro. She furrowed her brows. There were three of them and the one person that could help her right now was asleep...

"I know that Alejandro's there, too..." Elaine's voice floated out of the cell phone Heather held haphazardly at her side. "Aren't you guys gonna come out and play? Hmm?"

Before Elaine could say anything else, Heather pressed the "end" button to shut her up. She'd always hated the sound of Elaine's voice. Biting her lip, Heather brought up her speed dial and called Beth, the person that had informed her of the day off from school an hour ago via text message. Her phone started to ring and Heather waited, feeling each second drag on like an eternity as she waited for Beth to pick up.

One ring, two rings, three rings..._twenty rings_. Heather listened to the phone ringing for five full minutes, feeling her anxiety bubbling and her fear rising.

That's when the phone spat out voice message: "Hello, this is Beth...If this is Heather or Lindsay calling, I'm out with my new boyfriend! Tell you all about it later. Kisses, Beth."

Heather pulled her cell phone away for a second and stared at it, blinked. Part of her was surprised that Beth had a boyfriend, another part wanted to rip Beth to shreds for not being there when she _really_ needed a friend, and another part, a very small part, was happy that she'd found a boyfriend. Especially since she was kind of chubby and geekish, but she was developing good taste in fashion thanks to Lindsay...

"Heather!" Her mother hollered up the stairs, making Heather drop her cell phone. "Some of your friends from school are here!"

"Heather!" Elaine called in a singsong voice. "Don't you wanna go shopping? Go catch up? I saw the most fetch pair of sandals for you at the mall! I know how much you love tacky platform heels!"

Cussing under her breath, Heather could feel the bile raising in her throat. She had no clue what Elaine was up to, but all of her senses were on high alert. A huge jolt of adrenaline raced through her as she rushed towards her bedroom door and locked it. For extra measure, she grabbed the chair sitting next to her wooden vanity and used it to barricade the door. As she turned away, she could hear the high pitched chirp of Elaine's voice, accompanied by the voices of Justin and Courtney.

Desperation was building up within her; she raced across the room and flopped onto the bed, right on top of Alejandro.

"Alejandro!" she cried, shaking him roughly. "Alejandro!"

"Heather...?" They were just outside her bedroom door now.

"ALEJANDRO!" Heather shrieked at him.

She rolled him over and his eyelids opened slightly. "¿_Qué_?

"Alejandro...Elaine's here with Justin and Courtney," Heather whispered severely.

"_Cinco minutos más, por favor_," he murmured sleepily.

The door rattled and shook; Elaine was trying to twist the door knob.

Heather could feel her heart pounding in her chest. This was genuine fear. She knew exactly what Elaine was capable of, how ruthless and merciless she could be. That girl wanted revenge and she was ready to go to the extremes to take it, but it wasn't just her. Justin and Courtney were there, too and they were capable and powerful, wanting revenge, too. The three of them together was the stuff of Heather's nightmares.

The door rattled again. Heather could hear shuffling and whispers, angry voices. There was more than just Elaine, Courtney, and Justin out in the hallway. Listening hard, Heather heard two other voices with them, maybe even more than two...

"Alejandro, wake up!" Heather cried, lifting him and shaking him again.

"I told you...five more minutes..." he muttered groggily, not even opening his eyes.

Impatient and feverish, Heather cast a glance at the door again. She fled from the bed, spotted her cell phone, picked it up. Her pupils widened when she saw a text message in big and bold red letters on her screen: UR DEAD, BITCH! :D

Shaking, Heather crammed her phone into her pajama bottoms pocket then ran to the bed again. Her brain clicked, turning fast. Breathing in and out, Heather fiddled with the latches on her window, fumbling a few times and then almost breaking it when she finally pushed it up and open.

"Don't make this harder than it needs to be, Heather!" Elaine twittered.

"I'm gonna rip your freaking eyes out!" Courtney howled.

"You and your loser boyfriend are going down!" Justin added. "That'll be the perfect homecoming portrait for you two: matching black eyes!"

Ignoring the onslaught of verbal threats and the sound of the tumblers turning in the door's lock, Heather reached across the bed and grabbed Alejandro's arm. She tried pulling him across the bed, but he was way too heavy for her. As her tension continued to rise, Heather considered just leaving him behind, but then an idea occurred to her.

She lunged at him and kissed him passionately, sticking her tongue right into his mouth. After a few seconds, his eyes snapped open and he was mumbling.

Immediately, Heather pushed him away, grabbed his wrist and yanked him towards her bedroom window.

"We need to leave!" she said, cutting off the questions he wanted to ask. "NOW!"

She slithered through the window and he awkwardly followed. That's when Heather realized the only thing outside was the trellis and long drop to the ground. Alejandro just barely crawled out of the window when the trellis squawked and groaned, then fell towards the ground; Heather and Alejandro screamed.

As soon as she hit the ground, Heather was rolling, her vision shaking crazily like a pinball from the grass to the sky and back. For a few seconds, she was dazed, gritting her teeth as pain sprawled up one of her arms and down her legs. She tried to regain her bearings, but she couldn't even get up. When she looked for the source of why, she saw that the trellis had landed right on top of her legs and her arm had broken the fall near her head.

"Heather, are you alright, darling?" The trellis was lifted off of her and Heather groaned in pain, looking up as Alejandro appeared in her sight, his brows furrowed.

Carefully, he reached out and tried to help her climb to her feet, but Heather howled once she was on both feet; she couldn't stand up without pain shooting all throughout her body. It felt like the fall had sprained or even broken her ankle.

Quick as a whip, Alejandro picked up on what was happening: he saw Courtney leering out the window at them. He turned, scooped Heather up in his arms and took off at a brisk jog.

-Alejandro-

I've never woken up to being chased by a group of enemies before, so this is a new experience for me.

I ran across Heather's back yard, right into the neighbor's clone of backyard with its overly ostentatious set-up. Harnessing the speed of an Olympic runner, I flashed through several back yards, dodging stupid lawn ornaments and other things. Luckily, none of the yards had fences around them. My groggy, sleepy brain was finally waking up and I was forming a game plan as I ran.

As I came to the end of the last back yard in the rich, obviously Republican, neighborhood, Courtney and her blond pet nerd showed up. I kept running.

Courtney ran towards me with fingers extended like claws, her target Heather. When she was close enough, I easily dodged her and then stopped her momentum by tripping her. I continued running and as I came close to the nerd, I jumped over his extended leg, avoiding being tripped up. Then I stop long enough just to bop him in the nose.

I took off running again, not stopping to look back at my handiwork, no matter how tempted I was.

Heather shifts in my arms, wrapping her arms around my neck as she adjusts herself. Neither of us says a thing. My truck's only a few blocks away and if-_when_ I get us to it, we're home free.

The next couple of streets are gratefully empty and I think we've outrun them for now, but my adrenaline is pumping like cylinders in a car going over 100 miles an hour. My feet pound the pavement and I keep an eagle eye out everywhere, ready for anything.

We're only a few yards from my truck now. A few mere yards.

That's when a honey blond girl with hair hanging down to her butt and a smile the size of the Amazon appears out of thin air. Justin's standing next to her, smiling and glaring at me with a cold look in his cool blue eyes as he cracks his knuckles.

"Hey, Alejandro," Justin says. "Heather. Long time no see."

The blond just smirks.

"How the hell did you get here first?" Heather cries, wriggling in my arms.

"Yes," I echo her. "Enlighten us..."

"Doesn't matter," the blond snaps, stepping forward, hand on her hip.

"Put me down, Alejandro," Heather commands.

I do as she says, but reluctantly. She stumbles a few times, but then she gains her bearings. Hiding her pain, Heather stomps up to the blond and glares. Barely a nanosecond later, the blond lashes out with a punch directed right at Heather's face and Heather catches it, smirks at the blond.

"I won the first time," she snarls. "I'll win again."

There's tension on the air for another brief second and then the blond looks like she's sucking on an extremely sour lemon. She bucks, gasping as Heather pulls her fist out of the blond's solar plexus.

That was such an underhanded move and then that sinister look on Heather's face, the way her eyes ignite: she's ready for more. _Caliente_...

I turn my attention towards Justin, who's looking at the fight in a detached observer kind of way. He raises an eyebrow and winces as Heather pummels the blond a few more times, howling like a deranged werewolf.

"I'm guessing you want a rematch, _alfeñique_?"

That caught Justin's attention.

He turns towards me and his stance tenses. Unlike last time, his bruises and other injuries have probably healed up by now. He's practically in prime physical condition and if he's focused, he'll probably be a much more ferocious opponent than before. That doesn't mean I'm not going to kick his butt again.

I keep a casual stance, just look at him and raise an eyebrow. An entire minute passes and I can see Justin's frustration rising since I'm not going in for the first blow. His fighting skills are poor and he's used to having his opponent making the first move. Another few seconds and then he rushes at me, eyes blazing, fist raised.

He's made a huge mistake already. I simply stand there, watching as he continues running forward, increasing his forward momentum. When he's a foot away, I dodge out of the way and then trip him with my foot, watching as he falls right towards the sidewalk. He skids across the ground, trying to use his arms to shield his _muy precioso caro_.

I roll my eyes and walk over, planting the heel of my boot into the small of his back. He looks up at me and I kick him in the chest. Hard.

I've been keeping my true colors a secret for so long. When he tries to speak, I kick him and shoot him a steely glare. My eyes are colder than Antarctica and I can see the fear creeping into his face, see the way his pupils shrink. It feeds my superiority, makes me feel dominant. He has no clue what I'm capable of and I'm not pretending that I have limits anymore.

I lean down and look directly into his face, flashing my deadliest smirk at him.

"The first time was just a small farce," I hiss at him. "This time...you are in for quite a world of pain. If you bother to interfere with any of my affairs again, even if you are not consciously aware that you are, I will be absolutely merciless."

I stand up again and give him room to get back up, folding my arms.

"Come on now, get back up," I bark at him. "This fight's not over yet..."

With fierce eyes, I watch as Justin struggles back to his feet. He's scared, I can sense it. Even when he's standing again, he's shaking. As soon as he looks at me, though, I can see his steel coming back, a small flare of anger. Foolishly, he comes at me with his fist again.

This time, I grab his fist full-on, stopping the punch. Then I twist his wrist backward, push and push, watching the expression of utter horror and pain that crosses Justin's face. Bones snap. I let go and Justin howls in pain, grasping at his wounded paw.

That's when Courtney appears again, having finally caught up, her black eyes flashing in anger. Behind her is that same blond nerd, clutching at his nose and wrinkling his eyes.

"You're in for it now, bastard," says another voice.

I turn and see the blond snarling at me, cracking her knuckles.

My attention diverts to the ground. Heather's laying there, looking like a wounded bird. Her ankle is obviously broken or sprained; her arms are covered in bruises, and she has a black eye. Noticing me looking at her, she turns her face and I can see that her lower lip is bleeding profusely.

She looks at me with a helpless expression. She looks so weak and broken, all of her outright pride and confidence shattered like a window.

I turn my attention back to the blond; she looks more than ready to fight again. And there's barely any scratches on her.

Everything makes sense now. I know exactly what I need to do.


	14. Chapter 14

-14

Courtney leaps out and wraps herself around me like an anaconda, snaking her fingers through my hair and pulling.

"Hey! Nerdling! Justin! Hold him," the blond barks. She's obviously the ring leader of this little band of revenge seekers.

With huge effort, I leap forward, going into a hand stand. Courtney yelps, losing her grip on me and sliding off. Justin and the nerd come from either side, the nerd looking like he's about to lose his lunch. I kick both of them, sending them both flying before I return back to being on both feet.

Frustrated, the blond walks up to me, her arms folded.

"Heather's using you," she announces blatantly, her forest green eyes twitching. "She uses everybody like a nerd uses tissue. She's mean and nasty and she never apologizes for anything. If you knew what she's done to me, to everybody, you wouldn't want anything to do with her..."

So this is the Elaine that Heather was talking about. Taking a deep breath, she touches my shoulder and looks up into my eyes, looking pretty sincere for a person that's ready to infiltrate another person's house and pursue them with her band of merry minions to beat another person up.

"My methods may seem a bit...well, ruthless," Elaine continues, narrowing her eyes. "But all of this is necessary if I'm ever gonna get that bitch to back down. Do you know how many boyfriends she's stolen? How many birthday parties she's ruined? How willing she is to push anyone and everyone down into the dirt to get her way? She deserves a taste of her own damn medicine and I've been waiting long enough to give it to her!"

Elaine came closer, looking directly into my eyes. "I know Heather's hot," she whispered. "But she'd be willing to drop you at any moment for somebody cooler or better. Just because she dropped Justin for you means nothing. She'll do _anything _for reputation." She came even closer. "If you know what's good for you, drop Heather and go out with-"

I cut her off by putting my hand over her mouth. Keeping my hand there, I pushed her away and narrowed my own eyes, raising my eyebrows. She's quite naive if she honestly believes that she can play Satan's advocate with me.

She might be able to successfully pull that ploy with Justin and Courtney, and she may be a better fighter than Heather, but she can't tempt or employ her techniques on me. I'm pretty much _am _Satan's advocate. And she's one of his lesser minions with some modicum of talent in the profession, but not enough to trump me.

"I know exactly what you're up to," I tell her coldly. "I'm not convinced and I'm not falling for it."

Once I pull my hand away, Elaine looks at me, confused. It only lasts a second. Her confusion turns into anger and she launches at kick towards my crotch, but she's slow enough that I easily dodge it.

Justin hangs back and so does the nerd, but Courtney, her hair a bird's nest, explodes into action. She screams and tries to punch my face, but I dodge her punch.

The next minute or so is quite tedious. I keep wheeling around and dodging angry blows from Elaine and Courtney. Of course I'm the new target of their repressed anger since Heather already looks like she's been through the wood chipper and they still want revenge. Eventually, I pick up on their pattern of attack and orchestrate it to the point where I duck and Elaine socks Courtney in the face and Courtney kicks Elaine in her cheek.

The two of them are like bulls seeing red. All I have to do is walk out of the fight and they direct their anger towards each other.

"Stay out of my way!" Elaine screams.

"Who put _you _in charge?" Courtney cries back.

"Focus, bitch!" Elaine shrieks.

That elicits a brutal slap from Courtney. There's a huge red mark left on Elaine's face and she glares at Courtney for a second before tackling her to the ground and starting to pummel her with a volley of blows. Justin and the nerd are immediately mesmerized by the cat fight, like most guys are.

I immediately turn my attention back towards Heather. She's laying there, trying to stop her bleeding lip. Gingerly, I reach down and try to pick her up, trying to be as gentle as I can.

Nobody notices when I unlock my truck, slip Heather inside, close the doors and then drive away. Everything feels like a wild dream as I drive the truck to the hospital, looking periodically at Heather to see if she's okay. I know the wisest course of action would have been to call an ambulance, but considering that two crazy _chicas_ that are ready to rip anything in their path apart are there, there was no way I could have successfully accomplished that particular course of action.

Heather looks distant and faraway the entire time I'm driving to the hospital. It makes me wish that it was a month ago, when she first got into my truck and was arguing with me about Justin. She loves to argue and I have a feeling that once the honeymoon phase of our relationship is over, we'll be arguing back and forth like an old married couple. I'd still love her anyway.

Right now, arguing with her would be better than just the two of us sitting here, trying to forget what just happened. Just how much it stalled and messed up our plans.

I frown as we pull into the hospital parking lot. Heather looks at me and then closes her eyes, trusting me to make sure that she gets the care she needs so much right now.

The night was dark and cold. Overhead, a bank of dark gray clouds obscured the moon and there were barely any streetlights. Kate stood outside of the huge obsidian walls of the mansion in just her underwear, clutching her green T-shirt and jean shorts. She looked plaintively at Jose with her big brown eyes, saw the emotionless expression on his face.

A gorgeous supermodel looking woman stood next to him, looking from Kate to Jose.

"Go on," Jose said, waving his hand.

"That's all I am to you...?" Kate called back, dropping her clothes. "A possible one night stand?"

Jose gave her steely look.

"Yeah, that's all I am," Kate cried, tears filling her eyes and running down her cheeks. "She's prettier than me, so of course! Of course! You _used _me! I did everything you asked me to! Everything!"

Jose closed the door in her face.

The rain started to fall harder and Kate stared at the door for a long second. Then she picked up her clothes, turned and walked down the long trail that led up to Jose's front door. She walked right out the front wrought iron gates, and trudged past huge and beautiful houses. Biting her lip, she looked at all of the beautiful decorations, the meticulously cut lawns.

The rain pounded down heavily and mercilessly on her, drenching her underwear and her clothes, leaving her sopping wet. She felt like her heart had exploded and all of the pieces kept falling out of her chest, leaving a trail behind her as she walked. And she continued to cry, the tears falling down her face like a pair of waterfalls.

This had been the strangest week of her life and it left Kate feeling empty and drained. She didn't even know how she was able to still stand up or even breathe or move.

It had been so foolish of her to let herself fall in love with Jose so quickly. Just because he knew exactly what to say, took her out to dinner, did all of the things she'd always wished that Arnold would do, she'd allowed her heart to run free. Tonight, she'd let him coax her into almost making the biggest mistake of her life.

The scene played out in her mind: how timid and anxious she'd felt, the way she kept blushing. Her reluctance had shed as soon as Jose gave her a fake spiel on how she was the "most beautiful girl in the world" and "any guy would be lucky to have her." Both of her cheeks reddened as she remembered the rush of adrenaline, the pounding of her heart, and the pure happiness that had filled her. Right in front of him, Kate had shed her T-shirt and shorts. His smile had made her hormones accelerate, made her ready to take the biggest plunge a girl could take for a man.

The moment had made her feel confident and beautiful, like she could conquer the world just because he was smiling at her like that. The radiance and admiration in his face and in his eyes had made her ready to accept any consequences; she didn't care what would happen after all of this.

That was when the door opened and that woman had appeared. As soon as that supermodel had slinked into Jose's room, everything became clear to Kate. She was pushed right out, out into the dark and cold night simply because she wasn't a drop dead gorgeous supermodel with great big boobs, waves of dark raven hair, coal black eyes. That woman was just the pure definition of sexy, catnip for any man she came across.

Whatever emotional high Kate had been feeling, it was definitely gone now. She was relieved that she hadn't made that mistake, but she still felt extremely pathetic. Thankfully, it was so dark nobody could see her. When she came close to a tree, Kate hid behind it and sniffed as she pulled on her shirt and shorts. Once she had her clothes back on, Kate started looking for a street sign to figure out exactly where she was.

She was so depressed. All she wanted to do was go home, run up to her bedroom and lock herself in there, then sleep until she could pull herself back together. Somehow, her mind would show her that she was worth something. Just because Arnold didn't know she existed and Jose had just been using her, somebody would eventually want her for _her_...right? Somebody wanted her and wouldn't turn her down for a pretty brunette or a raven haired supermodel...?

Kate sighed heavily and pasted herself to the trunk of the tree, sinking down it until she was right at its base. Then she pulled her legs up under chin and sobbed her eyes out, felt the snot dribbling out of her nose. Several times, she wiped her face on her shirt sleeve. As the rain became harder and harder, Kate drew farther and farther into herself, growing sadder and more miserable.

It felt like an entire lifetime passed, but Kate didn't want to move. She didn't want to go home anymore. Nobody would look at the tears. All they would see were the implications of what just about happened, point fingers, and then make things that much worse...

"Who are you...?"

Kate couldn't breathe. For a second, she was scared and looked up. The rain had cleared and the moon was out, with a few straggling clouds around it. Of all of the people Kate would expect to see right now, she was face to face with Heather. And Heather was walking on crutches.

"Kate," she muttered. "Kate the idiot."

"What?"

Kate sighed heavily. "I'm leaving, okay?"

She climbed to her feet, feeling them shake and started to walk away and she could feel Heather staring at her. Gritting her teeth, she started to pick up her pace.

"Wait!" Heather called out.

"What?" Kate stopped in her tracks and turned to face Heather.

"You look like you've been crying..." Heather said.

Kate felt a huge lump in her throat. Right now, she was so upset that she probably would have poured her guts out to a runaway criminal. Scrubbing at her eyes, she turned to face Heather and looked at her, right into her dark eyes. It was peculiar how much she looked like Jose's new supermodel girlfriend...

"I was stupid," Kate said. "I went out with a college age guy because he thought I was cute. He invited me over to his house, which happens to be just a few houses down from yours, and I was stupid enough to go. And...stuff happened...and then he dumped me for a supermodel...and..."

"I didn't ask for your life story!" Heather replied, rolling her eyes.

Kate realized something, something that she needed to tell Heather. She felt so wilted that it was taking a huge effort just to walk right now, but she forced herself to walk right up to Heather, forced herself to look Heather in the face.

Earlier that week she'd already been caught with the video camera that held incriminating footage of Alejandro and Heather. Yet a day later, she'd been dabbling in activities that would ruin Heather's campaign yet again. Kate felt like such a fool and an idiot, depressed, but she felt that she could at least partially liberate herself, like she had by destroying that camera...

"Do you know Jose?" Kate asked, looking at Heather.

Heather's eyes widened, then she rolled her eyes. "His name seems to be popping up quite a lot lately..."

"Jose's my ex-boyfriend," Kate said bluntly. "He's been gussying me up, convincing me to start hanging out with the popular kids. I've started hanging out with Courtney a lot lately. I was even there for the locker incident..." Kate cringed at that. "...Jose's been telling me to get people to vote for Alejandro. He's made a bunch of fake ballots, posters, and everything. I have a sneaking suspicion that he's been hitting a few high school parties here and there, too, trying to rally up voters for Alejan-"

"Wait, wait, wait." Heather furrowed her brows and glared at Kate.

"Alejandro's not running for class president..." Heather mused.

"That's just it," Kate said, pulling some of the sopping wet fake ballots out of her shorts pocket. She held up the ballots for Heather to see and she looked at them skeptically, before frowning again and narrowing her eyes viciously at Kate.

"Yeah, I'm not an idiot," Heather replied, ripping the ballots from Kate's grip and ripping them up.

Kate stepped back from Heather. "I can see why it's such an unbelievable claim, but-"

"I _was _going to give you some dry clothes at least, loser, but now I'm not." Heather started to hobble back towards her brightly lit and warm mansion. "I'm not in the mood to be manipulated tonight. Go home and _never _come back here!"

For a few seconds, Kate stood there shivering and wet, watching Heather look around. Heather called the name "Bart" a few times, looked around. Obviously, she was looking for a house pet or someone by that name.

Frustrated, Kate turned and walked off of Heather's property. As she walked, she became angrier with each step she took. There was no way she was ever going to win. She felt so bitter she didn't care if Jose's plans came to successful fruition. Even though Jose had dropped her like a hot potato, he'd easily find another nerd girl to do his bidding. The next one probably wouldn't be keen enough to pick up on what he was doing, but smart enough _not _to tell Heather.

Even though she was telling the truth, Heather hadn't believed her...

Courtney sat in her bedroom, glaring at the wall.

It was midnight and she was covered in scratches. She saw the framed photograph she had of her and Duncan on the end table. For the past few days, she'd been too busy with preparations for her class president campaign to really do anything with it. Idly, she reached out for it and picked it up.

Biting her lip, she looked at it and felt something react within her. She ran her fingers down the smooth plexiglass front and experienced the moment of finding Duncan and Gwen in the janitor's closet again. It'd only been that past Monday, but it felt like it'd happened longer ago.

She was better off alone anyway. No tension. No drama. She was a strong woman. She'd definitely shown Elaine when she'd managed to give her a nice black eye and a couple of nasty kicks to her left leg!

Thinking about Elaine, Courtney squared her shoulders and steamed. That chick was practically the spawn of Alejandro and Heather: she had Heather's fierce and angry personality paired with Alejandro's charisma and charm. She'd managed to convince Courtney to work with her on one of her misguided adventures to get revenge on Heather.

Elaine had always been one of the girls that was just in the same class as Courtney, not really an acquaintance, but Courtney could vividly remember how competitive she'd been with Heather. Now Elaine was running for class president and since she'd garnered a vendetta with Courtney after today, she had both Courtney _and _Heather to worry about on the day of elections for class president.

Angry, Courtney clenched her fists and swore that she was going to defeat Elaine and Heather in that election, someway somehow.

That's when her cell phone rang. Courtney's eyes widened as she wondered who would be calling her so late at night. Gnashing her teeth, she answered the phone, just to give whoever it was a piece of her mind at least...

"Courtney, I just found out that Alejandro's running for class president," Arnold announced into the phone, not even bothering to say hello or apologize for calling so late.

"_What?_"

"Alejandro's running for class president...," Arnold said again. "He registered for it before he left school yesterday."


	15. Chapter 15

-15

Once Courtney was finished griping and moaning into the phone Arnold hung up.

Then he turned and looked at his older half-sister Ramona: a raven haired, dark eyed beauty. She was twenty years old and was already on her way to becoming a professional supermodel; she had twice as many modeling contracts as Justin! On top of that, she could act _and _sing.

Arnold was an intellectual giant and he knew how to be sneaky and deceptive when he needed to be. He'd been doing quite a lot of undercover work for Courtney: As soon as he figured out that Alejandro had an older brother named Jose from eavesdropping on the popular kids, he'd convinced Ramona to conveniently show up at one of the parties Jose was at on Sunday night. Luckily, Ramona was instantly taken with the guy and agreed to dig stuff up for Arnold because of it.

Ramona had discovered quite a lot. Way more than Arnold would have thought there could be...

"Little bro," Ramona said, crossing her legs and looking at him. "I know your major aim was to see if Jose had any connections to Alejandro, but there's something else you should know..."

Arnold looked at her, biting at his fingernails as he thought of ways to help Courtney to start demolishing Alejandro's campaign.

"You know that little brunette friend of yours?" Ramona started fiddling with a strand of her hair. "She was there. At Jose's house. He was just about to bang her before I showed up..."

"Kate...?" Arnold's eyes widened. "You're...Did she have brown eyes? Wearing green?"

Ramona nodded at all of the questions, making Arnold's stomach drop.

All thoughts of sabotage vanished as soon as he started thinking more deeply about what Ramona had just said. His stomach twisted and he felt like retching when he thought of Kate being in bed with Alejandro's brother. Alejandro was bad enough, but from the reports Ramona had been giving about Jose...Jose was ten times worse than Alejandro...

Fear and anxiety split him in half and he turned to look at Ramona.

"They didn't...do it, did they?" he asked, feeling absolutely nauseous as the words came out of his mouth.

"No." Ramona shook her head. "Jose kicked her right out of the house as soon as I showed up. Poor little thing ran away crying..." Ramona turned away, guiltily rubbing at her arm. "I had to dump that asshole, Arnold. He even tried to get _me _into the bedroom with him. I argued with him for several minutes and we ended up traversing his entire house, yelling at each other. That's how I found the fake ballots, found plans scribbled in his notebook about Alejandro..."

Sighing, Ramona shook her head and ran her hands through her long hair. "I've never met or kissed a more twisted man than Jose in my life, Arnold. I drove all over town before I came home, too, Arnold. I looked everywhere for that sweet little girl, but I couldn't find her..."

There were tears filling Ramona's eyes. She was usually very skilled at keeping her composure and emotions in check, but this was ripping her up as much inside as it was Arnold. Walking over to her, Arnold could feel tears welling up in his own eyes.

"Don't let that asshole get within ten feet of her ever again..." Ramona whispered, fighting tears.

"I won't," Arnold promised her. "We'll find her and get her home safe, too."

Arnold took his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed Kate's phone number.

The phone rang once, twice...three times...fourteen times...

Feeling his stomach fold up again, Arnold hung up and tried re-dialing the number again.

After almost fifty rings, Kate _still_ didn't pick up.

-Alejandro-

Carlos is home for the weekend. He's on vacation for the next month or so since the professional team that he plays for is off season for awhile. Of course, Mom called him a few days ago about being pregnant and he took the earliest plane he could out of Spain to come to Cress.

Ever since I was a _niño_, Carlos was always the more supportive older brother and the referee for the fights that tended to break out between Jose and I. I can say that the happiest years of my life, despite the presence of Jose, were when Carlos still lived with us. After he moved out because of becoming a professional soccer player, things just went majorly downhill.

I know this weekend's supposed to be about catching up and Mom's future "_pequeña princesa_" Pilar, but I really hope that I get a chance to talk to Carlos. I'm pretty much independent and self-sufficient, but I've really been knocked off-balance since Jose showed back up in my life. When I was little, I always used to go to Carlos for advice and I feel like at least talking to him might even things out at least a little.

So much is on my plate right now. I think I'm just going to leave Heather alone for the weekend since I have some major things to sort out. Well, unless she wants me to come see her. Yesterday was so rocky and stressful. Last night's still playing through my mind like a movie...

I waited for about an hour for her in the waiting room, feeling nervous energy sailing through every cell of my body. Like a person who'd stayed up too late and drank too much coffee, I found myself jumping at every shadow and twitching every time a cell phone rang...

When I least expected it, a nurse in pink scrubs led me to Heather's room.

There were mint green walls and everything was so meticulously clean. Heather's parents stand beside Heather's bed, talking quietly to her and looking at each other with confused looks. As soon as they noticed I was there, all of them looked at me.

Heather's mom blinked and her dad frowned. "Who are you?" her dad asks.

"Get out!" Heather told them.

They look at her and she waves a dismissive hand at them. Looking at each other, they stood up and then left the room, casting glances at me as they left. Heather pretty much had them trained like dogs. As soon as they were gone and the door closed behind them, I walked over and sat down beside Heather's bed.

Heather looks at me, pursing her lips and raising her eyebrows.

"I can't believe that Elaine got the better of me like that..." she says, frustrated. "I beat her so easily last time!"

I frown. "I noticed that she was quite adroit at kicking, punching, and blocking," I tell her. "I believe she's probably been training quite a bit in some form of martial arts or, at the least, with a punching bag. Though I highly doubt that she trained herself to kick and punch like that. There was obviously a professional behind it..."

Heather looks at me and narrows her eyes. "Jose...?"

I nod, amazed by how easily our trains of thought can sync up sometimes.

"I honestly can't believe that it's pure coincidence that both Jose _and _Elaine would turn up in the same town at the same time right after we started dating," I say.

"You said that Jose was dating Elaine earlier this month, so it'd make sense..." I sigh heavily and shake my head. "Jose never stops thinking of ways to get back at me and make my life miserable. He's ready to set up any and all of his pawns, anything that could possibly help him in his future plans. I never understood why, but he hates me. He hates me with all of his being..."

I look at the blue and white linoleum, bare and simple under the cold florescent lights. It seems so strange that I'm saying all of this aloud. For a huge part of my life, I've always wondered why it seemed like Jose's one goal in life was to ruin mine. It made me so angry at him, fueled my hatred, because I can't figure him out. Because I know he'll never stop being the bane of my existence.

When I look at Heather, she looks like she understands. Wordlessly, she reaches out and takes my hand in hers, squeezes it. She looks anywhere and everywhere but my face for a minute before she finally looks at me.

"It feels that way for me with Elaine," Heather says, furrowing her brows. "Before we were rivals...she was the first one who actually understood me, Alejandro. When she first came to Cress before freshman year, she was the closest thing to a best friend I ever had. We were so alike and that's what made our friendship work...it's also probably what led to us becoming enemies. We became enemies as soon as we entered high school."

She bites her lip and glares at the sheets. "As soon as Justin showed up..."

"I don't have as extensive a back story as you do with Jose...but I kinda get it. I seriously feel like all Elaine wants to do is _ruin _my life. She's more relentless and brutal than any of my other rivals in the past. And now...she's...she's _better _than me, Alejandro. Superior." Heather reaches up and knots her fingers through her hair, looks at me and wrinkles her face as she realizes that she's admitted some of her deepest, most tentative thoughts to me.

We're lucky that we can feel so open with each other. This is probably one of the very few times in my life where I truly trust another human being. Actually, Heather's probably the second person I've ever come close to trusting.

"She can't remain superior forever," I tell her. "Just like Jose isn't going to be superior to me forever."

I squeeze her hand then lean towards her. She inches a bit closer to me and then I kiss her gently on the lips.

I poke at my _arroz_. The aroma wafting off of it tickles my nostrils and tempts me, but my stomach feels like the innards of a hollow log. I'm just not hungry. I just can't stop thinking about Heather and Jose and everything else. Nothing makes sense to me anymore.

Everyone else at the table is talking animatedly, laughing and lost in the world of family festivity. A few times I can feel Carlos' dark eyes looking across the table at me, questioning. Every time, I avoid his gaze and I make enough comments provoking my parents to discuss what the new baby might be like that I barely have to talk. Nobody even notices me and that's what I want right now. As soon as everyone else is done eating, Mom notices that I haven't eaten any of my food.

Despite my lack of appetite, I start shoveling food into my mouth.

"Alejandro, _¡dejes comiendo rapido!_" Mom chastised me.

Mouth full of _arroz_, I lowered my fork and started chewing more slowly. It really disturbs me that everybody's looking at me as I swallow. The rice and vegetables are delicious, sticky and warm as I swallow. They're just right, the perfect way Mom always makes _arroz. _

Yet it hits my stomach like a rock.

Jose smiles and looks at Mom. "Alejandro and I will be outside playing soccer," he says, standing up and walking over to where I'm sitting. He grabs my arm and gently tugs, getting me to stand up and then leads me outside.

Fall is definitely coming: the air is crisp and clean. None of the leaves are turning colors yet, but within the next month or so they will. Jose leads me to the slender oak in the backyard, leans against it and takes a deep breath. Then he slides down the trunk, sits at the base of it and folds his arms behind his head.

Unlike Jose and I, Carlos has Dad's dark eyes and light chestnut brown hair matched with Mom's kindly and dreamer-like personality. He's the oldest in the family and liked by pretty much everybody most of the time because he's nice and sincere. A softie.

He looks at me and smiles, patting the grass next to him.

"I know something's on your mind, Alejandro," he says with a laugh. "You might be able to fool ol' Mom for awhile, but not me."

He's right. Carlos has always had a knack for reading everyone's mind because he has empathy even sharper than Mom's.

"Yes..." I sit down next to him.

"You know...I really like Cress," Carlos says, all smiles as he looks at me. "I kind of wish I'd been here in my junior year of high school."

"It's a medium sized town," I reply, frowning. "I think I'd rather be living in a big city. New York City or Mexico City, any kind of big city is better suited for me. Cress is okay, though, I suppose. I don't think I want to be leaving anytime soon..."

"You found a girl, didn't you?" Carlos wiggles his eyebrows. "She must be something special if she's managed to tame Alejandro the tiger!"

He laughs and then I end up laughing along with him, just because his laugh is so merry and contagious.

"Tell me about her?" Carlos asks, smiling.

I remain silent. The last thing Carlos will ever hear from me is a heartfelt and poetic confession of love for my lady friend. Yes, I am in love with her to the point that I could write Shakespeare style sonnets for her and leave roses at her door step, but Carlos doesn't need to know that.

He'd never let me live it down after I bragged to him so many years ago that I'd never let a woman tie me down and that I'd never fall in love.

"I know that Jose's back in town," Carlos says, frowning as he looks up at the pale blue sky. "He always loved the color red and it was hard to miss him zipping through town way over the speed limit in a red convertible. Six beautiful women in the back seat..." Trailing off, Carlos shakes his head and sighs.

"Personally, I'm a one woman man," he says, looking at me. "Alejandro, I found the love of my life in Spain! Her name's Carmen, five foot three with killer legs, bright red hair. She loves soccer and she's probably the nicest girl a guy could meet. I couldn't believe that she was single when I met her for the first time five months back. Now I still can't believe that I'm hers!"

"You always did like red heads," I reply, smiling. I like girls with long black hair.

"Carmen's absolutely amazing!" Carlos groans, his eyes alight with delight. "Trust me, Alejandro. Stay with your girl and you won't regret it. That's something Jose doesn't get. Love is sweeter if you wait and hold out for just the right girl. I know there's so much temptation in the world and that guys like us can have any woman we want, but that's not going to last forever. This girl has me thinking about kids and marriage." Carlos grins a little. "As soon as I get back to Spain, I'm proposing to her. I might even convince her to move back here with me."

"To Cress?"

Carlos nods, looking absolutely ecstatic.

"You were always such a secret romantic," I tease him. "You're the only guy I know that reads romance novels."

"Oh, don't look so high and mighty," he replies, raising an eyebrow. "You're a secret romantic, too, Alejandro. Probably an even bigger one than me."

"_¿Qué?_" Did I just hear him right?

Rolling his eyes, Carlos grins.

"I saw you reading Mom's romance novels," he says, butting me with his elbow.

"I did not!" My cheeks are bright red now. He's absolutely correct. Every chance I got, I used to hide out in the bathroom and read whatever recent paperbacks Mom bought at the gas station when no one was looking. At least I thought nobody was looking...

"Jose always wanted to be you," Carlos says out of the blue, getting me to look at him with eyes the size of bowling balls.

"Jose used to be the youngest," Carlos continues, smiling. "As soon as you showed up, he wasn't the baby of the family anymore. Plus, even though he likes to brag so much about his IQ, _you_ learned how to walk and talk much earlier than he did. When he was eight and you were six, your comprehension of the English language was better than his, too."

Folding his arms, Carlos leans against the tree trunk and looks blithe as he talks.

"Jose is jealous of you, Alejandro," he continues. "He's always seen you as a threat and his goals are centralized on sibling rivalry." Carlos shakes his head and sighs. "Jose has so much potential. He could do anything he wanted. I honestly thought that after he became a millionaire through wise stock investments that he'd changed, that he was actually growing up. Of course not!"

"Jose hasn't changed one bit. He's still a spoiled little boy that does whatever he wants whenever he wants to at anyone's expense."

A guilty look crosses Carlos' face and he looks at me, then sighs heavily.

"Don't get me wrong, I love Jose, since he's family and my brother..." Carlos says, looking like he's having trouble finding the right words to say. "What I'm trying to say here is that...don't let him get to you, Alejandro. Don't let him win. If you do, you'll never stop fighting with him. The struggle will never stop. Somebody might win every now and then, but it will never stop as long as you both live. I hate to say it Alejandro, but there's been times when you were just like Jose. The more you fight against Jose, the more like him you seem to become..."

The back door opens and Mom stands there, holding a silver and blue soccer ball.

"You forgot this, _mi hijo_!" she calls, smiling.

Carlos smiles back and climbs to his feet, walking over to get it.

I lean against the tree and look up at the sky. Carlos' words run through my mind and they start to sink in. I sit there, frozen in place. I can't move.

The more I think about it and relay it in my head, the more it makes sense. When I look down at my hands, they're shaking. Shaking my head and trying to clear it, I reach into my jeans pocket and pull out a hand mirror that I randomly shoved into my pocket this morning. For some reason, I find myself lifting it to my face and looking at my own reflection.

My green eyes, my brown hair. At every school I've ever attended, I was always one of the most popular kid, one of the kids with the best grades. I've dated girls just to date. A lot of my friendships were just tools to refine and tinker with my social status and reputation. I'm merciless, ruthless, a piranha.

When I look into that mirror, I'm looking at a carbon copy of my older brother.

I'm practically Jose's clone...

Horror rolls through me, from head to foot. I drop the mirror and everything seems to go into slow motion as it falls and hits the ground. The glass inside of it splinters and splits into a bunch of shards that fly everywhere and catch the sunlight. Time starts speeding up as Carlos and Mom turn to look at me, then look down at the now broken mirror with confusion on their similar faces.

I can't bear to look at them. To look at that mirror and see myself.

Without thinking, I leap to my feet and start running, around the side of my house, and then down the street. I need to get away from here, away from Carlos, Mom, and Dad. I just keep running and running, through the streets, through a network of paths with as little congestion or interaction with cars as possible. No clear destination in mind.

"_...I hate to say it Alejandro, but there's been times when you were just like Jose. The more you fight against Jose, the more like him you seem to become..."_

Those words loom over me like the blade on a executioner's block. A death sentence. It scares me how accurate they are, just how correct Carlos is. Carlos was right to get in-between Jose and I when we fought, to stop it. But as soon as he left, the inevitable happened. No matter what, I was going to transform into Jose; Carlos' absence just made the transformation happen faster.

After almost twenty minutes of running, I find myself standing right in front of Heather's mansion. I stand there for a minute and look up at it, look at where Heather's room is located. She's probably there right now, hanging out with either Lindsay or Beth or both, trying to capture at least some normality despite Elaine's return to Cress. Breathing hard, I turn away and steel myself against the desire to walk up to the front door and ring the doorbell.

Like a soldier, I start marching away, but each step is difficult. Every step forward makes me want to take two steps back, makes me want to see Heather's face and kiss her until I suck away all her breath and she's a deflated balloon. All over, I burn with the desire to hold her close, just to have her right here right now. I know I could. I know I could go see her, even though I'm grounded.

All it would take is a few simple steps. A single doorbell ring. But as much as I want to, I resist and continue walking away.

For some reason, I feel like I made a big mistake as I continue walking away. As each mansion passes by, Heather's gets farther and farther away and it feels like my heart is back there with it. Deep down, some part of me knows that Heather owns my heart and that no other girl could have as iron a grasp on it as she does. That just makes me feel that much worse.

I'm not a creature of expressing emotion or breaking down. I'm not weak and being with Heather makes me feel so open and vulnerable. That's enough to make me walk faster, makes it easier to leave her mansion behind me.

I'm breathing now. Calming down.

That's when I notice a tall mansion made of midnight black obsidian, tucked behind a pair of black metal wrought iron gates. Off to the side there's a driveway and a bright red, extremely familiar convertible is parked there.

All of my senses are going crazy. I know who lives here and I look at the wrought iron gates, reach out and grasp them tightly with my fingers. Then I look through the slats in the gate, at the mansion, and I feel a feverish desire to get in. The longer I stand there staring, the stronger my desire becomes.

I'm gripping the gate so hard my knuckles turn white. My adrenaline spikes as I push the gate...and it opens.

My heart's jumping all around inside of me as I walk right up the trail to the front door. With absolutely no hesitation or second thoughts, I reach out and ring the doorbell. The sound seems to become magnified, bouncing around everywhere. Barely a few seconds later, I hear the door click and watch as it slides open.

Jose stands right there, in a red bath robe, smirking at me.


	16. Chapter 16

-16

Arnold sat at his desk, his knees pulled up under his chin, staring at the computer screen.

A few seconds later Harold wandered into the room and stood next to the chair his best friend was sitting in, put his hand on the back of his chair. His eyes were bleary around the edges and his face was red. Several times, Harold tried to say something, but he just couldn't get himself to. There was a huge lump stuck in his throat. Knowing how terrible he felt, he couldn't imagine what was going through Arnold's mind.

Arnold was a zombie; his eyes wide and glazed as he stared out the window. At nothing.

Just then, LaShawna peered into the room, her eyebrows knitted. Frowning, Harold turned to look back at her and shook his head. Knowingly, LaShawna nodded back at him and then ducked out of the room again.

For several minutes, Harold stood there with his hand gripping the back of the chair, both he and Arnold looking out the window at the falling sheets of gray rain. It seemed appropriate, as if the sky was crying after what had happened today, too. After a few more minutes, Harold looked at Arnold.

A single tear was running down his cheek.

-Alejandro-

It feels like I shouldn't be at school today.

I've seen several of the AV club nerds gathered together with red and raw faces. Even Courtney seems a bit unsettled: she was by herself, tapping away with an uncharacteristic expression on her face texting her friends. It feels like a black rain cloud has settled over Cress High School and is blanketing it with gloom and sadness.

I'm carrying Heather's text books since she still has to walk around on crutches for the remainder of this week. When we reach her locker, there's a dark haired girl wearing thick glasses wailing like a banshee while a brunette tries desperately to console her. The sound is disconcerting.

Heather has a strange look on her face as she unlocks her locker.

She doesn't speak and I don't ask. The rest of the morning is unusually silent, but that's alright.

I have my own thoughts preoccupying me right now.

It feels strange when Heather pecks me on the cheek and then enters her first hour class. For some reason, I feel hollow and strange as I wander down the hallway. Every so often, I notice that everybody else has a sense of unease, too. Quite a few students have burst into tears this morning, too.

They're the only ones that seem to know what's so amiss today.

Sitting in my first hour class, I'm just trying to keep my mind blank. To make today a normal, monotonous school day, but I don't think that I'll be able to today.

The intercom crackles, the pledge is said, and then everybody sits back down. Teacher calls roll. Usually, that blond nerd kid that follows Courtney like a lovesick puppy dog is here, every day. Normally, I don't notice him, but after the teacher calls his name and he's not here the empty desk a few rows away from me draws my attention.

My heart pangs, like an arrow was shot through it.

"_I'm going to take care of that little blond bastard...Just watch, Al. Just watch. My plan's falling into place..."_

I don't want to think about Jose, but his voice echoes through my mind. I can see how narrowed his pupils are, the pointed teeth in his grin, the tone of his voice when he said all of those words.

I know why that nerd's not here. I know why everybody's so upset. And there's nothing I can do about it.

The teacher just drones on, none of his words really sinking in. I know that I'm not the only one not paying attention. In the middle of class, a figure shuffles through the classroom door. Everybody looks up.

It's the blond nerd kid. His eyes are bright red and bloodshot, his face red and raw. For the first time in my life, I truly feel sorry for somebody, watching as he shuffles to his desk, sits down, folds his arms, and then buries his face in them. He's like that the rest of the class period, too.

Heather and I are sitting in the library. It's lunch time and neither one of us really has an appetite. She looks out the window, at the ceiling, then bites her lip when she looks at me.

"You know what happened on Saturday...?" she says, frowning.

"I've been hearing what some of the kids have been whispering..." I reply, watching as she runs a hand through her hair.

Heather shakes her head and sighs. "She tried to warn me about something Jose was doing..."

"What?" My eyes widen. I'm fully aware what Jose's up to by now, but this is still news.

"I...might have been the last person she ever talked to..." Heather's whispering now. "If I...I shouldn't've..." She grips her head and shakes it.

"What did happen to her?" I ask, guessing that I should at least know the biggest piece of information before trying to absorb anything else.

"She got run over," Heather squeaks, blinking and shaking her head again. "She got run over...by a car..."

I reach across the table and wrap my fingers through hers, squeeze her hand. It's depressing that Kate's dead, but neither Heather or I really knew her all that well. Scrunching my brow, I feel a lot more hollow than before, but I don't understand why Heather is so shaken up by this. I'm not a heartless person, but I can't really get myself depressed over the death of someone who wasn't even an acquaintance of mine...

I keep squeezing Heather's hand and she regains her composure, but her eyes still look faraway.

"Before Kate died that night," Heather says, frowning and looking at me. "She tried to tell me something about Jose, but I didn't listen to her. She told me that she found fake ballots, posters. That Jose was trying to get her to rally everyone up to vote for _you_..."

"It's all true," I tell her, scooting my chair closer to her.

"God, I was such an idiot!"Heather cries, clenching her fists. "Of course Jose was trying to break us up! And that election was the way to do it...Oh God..."

I can't imagine what's going through Heather's mind, but what she's telling me is opening up a world of possibility. So, Jose's newest girlfriend was ready to impart information. Heather is apparently aware of how much I know, but this just sends my mind into hyper drive. My brain is trying to go down roads I'd prefer not to contend with right now.

Silently, I lean towards Heather, the desire to hug her overpowering me. Part of me knows that my actions are deceptive and unfair, but right now I just don't care. Closing my eyes, I envelope her in an embrace and melt into her, resting my head on her shoulder. For several seconds I stay there, soaking everything in like a plant hungry for sunlight.

What makes things worse is when she hugs me back and strokes her fingers through my hair...

Jose looks at me, his arms folded as he smirks. He was always so much better at playing the Devil's advocate than I.

Behind him on his desk he has a photo of Heather. She looks absolutely beautiful there, her eyes closed and a smile on her face. Frowning, I turn my attention back to Jose and his smirk grows wider, making him look hungry and triumphant. He knows what he wants and _exactly_ how to get it.

"_No puedes correr y no ocultas,_" Jose teases me. "I win."

He walks over to me, dips his face down and looks at me.

"I. Win," he says with conviction, spraying spittle into my face.

Radiating with anger, I grab the lapels of his bath robe and yank until we're nose to nose. He continues to grin and leer at me. People have called me _El Diablo_, metaphorically of course, but Jose is closer to the mark than me. He'd gladly leave a woman in quicksand to save himself and swindle a person out of everything they owned. I'd be surprised if he hadn't already done both.

"You _do not _win," I say with conviction.

"Yes I do," he replies, just giving me more incentive to punch him. "_You _started this Alejandro, not me. I just helped put everything in motion. Made everything move faster."

Jose grabs my wrists and manages to extricate himself from my grip.

"I was the one who put the suggestion in your head, but _you_ were the one who signed up to run for class president," Jose tells me. "You can't have the women and the power, Al. Especially when it comes to women like yours. It was pretty stupid on your part to follow my advice..."

Jose laughs.

"That just made everything that much easier...for _me_!" He laughs again. "You're going to be alone for the rest of the life...I saw the way you looked at Heather! She's your _soul mate_-"

I couldn't stand the tone of his voice any longer. Flooding with fury, I punched him right in the chin, cutting off what he was saying. For a second, he was cut off-guard and I could feel every cell in my body shrieking with adrenaline as a thin trickle of ruby red blood dripped out of his mouth. I tackled him to the ground and pinned him there, but he just smirks at me, unaffected, as if I had just pinched him, nothing worse than that.

"It's not my fault that you're so _estupido_, Al," he continues.

I punch him in the chest.

"Heather's gonna be lonely for the rest of her life too!" he wheezes and laughs. "She'll never forgive you! She's gonna break up with you and become an old cat lady! _Dios! _She'll never be able to find anybody else 'cause of her bitchy attitude. The most she'll get are one night stands, just like you. And then you'll both be thrown away. Dust in the win-"

I punch Jose again, harder and he can't breathe, lets out a sharp wheeze of air. He can't talk, but even when he curls into fetal position on the floor, he's still grinning.

Carlos' words run through my mind and hang above my head like a guillotine. For a second, I hover over Jose, feeling the world breaking like glass around me. Then I stand up and leave him behind, exit his mansion before he can catch his breath again and say anything else.

I walk away, simmering with anger and frustration. Beating Jose up didn't make me feel any better. After hearing him reveal the entirety of his plan, it's just inevitable that he's screwing me over more than just once. My stomach feels hollow.

He's right. He wins. He may have been setting up measures for me to win, but he made an extra measure so that _somebody else_ wins.

I'm losing Heather _and _the election. _Dios_, Carlos you were right.

_You're always right...mi hermano grande. ¿Qué hago ahora?...¿Qué hago ahora?_

I hug Heather tighter and squeeze my eyes shut tighter. Then I lean over and kiss the top of her head, kiss her cheeks, her nose. Quickly, I open one eye to make sure no teachers are around and then I plant a kiss on her lips. When I pull away, Heather furrows her brows and looks at the table top.

I keep my hand on top of hers, my head beginning to cycle through what happened at Jose's mansion. His words and Carlos' words echo through my mind and when Heather looks up at me, I hope that she can't read it...

"Alejandro...?" she asks, pulling her hand out of mine.

"Yes?"

Heather blinks twice. "I know that you're running for class president..."

The air feels more stormy and gloomy. As if Kate's death weren't enough, _this_ has to permeate the air too. I look at Heather for a long second, not sure what's running through her mind. Her face is expressionless, her brown eyes cloudy and distant. Folding her arms, she scoots the chair an inch away from me.

"Did Jose...register you for that or did you...?"

"I registered myself."

"When?" She looks furious, like a harpy out of a Greek myth.

"Thursday."

Heather looks at me for a long minute, scrutinizing me.

"Elections are tomorrow," she says for no reason in particular.

We continue looking at each other for a long minute. In that one minute, it feels like everything that happened over the past month unravels and falls apart. Her glare becomes more and more fiery, burning whatever sweetness and passion we had before. In a huff, she grabs her crutches and stands up, sticking her nose up, looking at me out of the corner of her eye.

"We're through," she says, clenching her crutches in a death grip. "Next time I see you after today is up on stage...when _I'm _named class president!"

Her tone sparks something in me. All of her words are severe, dominating. Clenching my own fists, I stand up and march over to her, her eyes filling me with her hatred, her anger. It warms me, burning all of the pain and strife I experienced. I can see Jose's face reflected in the pupils of her eyes, leering at me, teasing me...

"Fine!" I bark at her. "But it is not you who will be winning..._it will be me_..."

I glare at her as she turns and hobbles away, out of the cafeteria. As soon as she's gone, the room feels emptier. I'm still burning, erupting like a volcano inside. Jose's evil laughter resonates through my mind...

"_I win...I win...I win..."_


	17. Chapter 17

-17

Heather hobbled down the hallway, feeling the muscles in her arms straining with the effort. She worked out a little bit, but the most she'd ever bench pressed was 55 pounds; plus, she'd been working the crutches for almost three days now. It was grueling work. But her anger burned inside, running through her limbs like wildfire.

When she reached her locker, Heather shoved the crutches to the floor and kicked them away with her one good foot. She stumbled for a second when she lost her balance, but somebody caught her. Surprised, Heather turned and almost expected to see Alejandro there, but it was Beth. Relief washed through Heather and she managed a small smile as Beth helped her stand back up.

"Thanks," Heather said as she started spinning her combination.

"Hello Heather..." said a snarky voice that was anything but Beth. "Where's _Alejandro_?"

Venom shot through Heather's veins. Gritting her teeth, she dropped her things back into her locker and slammed it shut, finding the smirking face of Elaine behind it.

"Did the two wittle wuvbirds have a fight?" Elaine asked, her voice coated in sugary sweetness around a poisonous apple. "First major fight and you've already dumped Spanish hunk's ass, huh? Wow, you're an even bigger stubborner-than-a-donkey bitch than I thought..." Her tone changed then, going from fake sweet to biting and harsh.

"Just keep talking," Heather gritted her teeth and glared. "I'm kicking your ass, Courtney's ass, _and _Alejandro's ass. I don't need that asshole. I don't need Justin. I could beat you with my hands tied behind my back!"

Heather folded her arms and stood straight, smirking at Elaine as her confidence rose. Competition was exactly what she needed right now. For as long as she'd lived, Heather was ferociously competitive, tough, and merciless. No obstacle could take her down now, especially not Elaine.

"Big words, coming from _you_," Elaine sneered, stepping forward. "Especially since I'm the one that kicked your scrawny little ass not too long ago..."

For emphasis, Elaine lashed out, prodding her finger into Heather's chest and making her fall backwards. With a grunt, Heather fell ungracefully to her rear and found herself looking up into Elaine's leering face.

Smirking, Elaine made a satisfied grunt, then turned and sauntered off. Confused, Heather looked towards Beth and Beth just shrugged, her face contorted with regret.

"I'm going out with her brother..." Beth whispered helplessly. "He's the hottest guy that's asked me out since eighth grade. He'll break up with me if-"

Fury riled within Heather. She narrowed her eyes and cut Beth off with a wave of her hand.

"Just go!" she barked at Beth.

"Heather..." Beth's eyes widened and she furrowed her brows.

"GO!" Heather shrieked, making Beth cringe.

Without any more hesitation, Beth took off after Elaine and fell into step next to her. As Elaine's high-heeled brown boots clicked on the linoleum, Heather felt her confidence sink like a boat. The school hierarchy was changing. Elaine was definitely new queen bee material.

She may have beaten Heather up. She might be better at verbal jousts. But Heather swore that she wasn't going down without at least one more fight; she definitely wasn't going to show any more weakness in front of Alejandro.

Clenching her fists, Heather forced herself to stand back up, ignoring the pain pulsing in her ankle.

"Your butt looks like a flimsy piece of cardboard in those jeans!" Heather yelled at Elaine's back. "Your boobs are about to fall out of that tacky top, you beached whale! Green is definitely _not _your color! Any shade looks like barf on you!"

Elaine never turned around, just kept walking.

"You're a complete piece of shit!" Heather squawked, wanting the last word. "A complete. Piece. Of. Shit."

Courtney was leaning against her locker, arms folded across her chest. The final bell had just rung. Justin stood next to her, looking impatient and irritated as he watched Courtney press her cell phone to her ear; she'd been trying to contact Jose all day.

Neither of them knew who the guy was, but he'd been Elaine's closest contact: she wouldn't shut up about him when they'd made their plans to ambush Heather. Now that Courtney had a vendetta against Elaine, and then there was the fact that he was Alejandro's older brother, she needed to get in contact with him. Find some way to get him out of the picture.

The phone rang several times. After the tenth ring, Courtney raised her hands to the air and groaned in frustration. "We _have _to get a hold of Jose!" Courtney cried in outrage. "If he goes down, Elaine goes down!"

Justin placed a hand on her shoulder and looked at her. "You can win the election with just my influence alone. Be my girlfriend. Just for a week..."

"You're _still _hung up on that?" Courtney cried at him in outrage.

"Hey, I've gotten everything I've ever wanted since age 6," Justin said casually, shrugging. "I'm not giving up." He flashed a bright white smile at her.

For a second, Courtney furrowed her brows and tapped her chin. Then she slumped her shoulders and looked sideways at Justin. "I _do _want to win the election..."

Justin smiled and leaned towards her, closing his eyes and puckering his lips.

"I know where you can find Jose," someone interrupted them.

Courtney's eyes widened and she turned to face the unexpected arrival. "What?"

Arnold raised his head, put his hands in his pockets. Both of his eyes were covered in crisscrosses of bright red and his corn blond hair looked like a field blown over by a tornado; he looked tired, as if he was going to topple over at any given moment now.

"I _know _where you can find Jose," Arnold repeated.

"Oh, _thank you_, Arnold!" Courtney squealed in delight, rushing over and sweeping him up into her arms. "If you were a bit more good looking I might have gone on a date with you!"

"Hey!" Justin protested, folding his arms and shooting daggers at Arnold.

Arnold wriggled out of Courtney's embrace and scuttled back a few feet from her.

"Come on," Arnold snapped, standing with his back straight and leading them out into the school parking lot.

All the way to a small green hybrid, Arnold led the way. The turn of events left Justin absolutely appalled. He was hoping everything was a terrible nightmare as soon as he reluctantly climbed into the back seat of Arnold's car; Courtney climbed into the front seat right next to him, wearing a sugary smile that could make even the most obsessed sugar lover sick.

As Arnold pulled out, Justin huffed and looked out the window. Today was a bad day: he was being led by a lowly _nerd_ and that _nerd _had garnered the interest of his love interest. _Nobody _was allowed to trump Justin, the MVP of the Cress High School football team and teen male model. Justin got _everything _he wanted. Courtney was not going to be an exception.

Gritting his teeth, Justin fingered the bandages on his face, fizzling with fury over his last fight with Alejandro. Out of the corner of his eye, he glared at Arnold.

_That nerd is gonna get it_, he thought as he entertained himself with visions of giving Arnold wedgies and noogies.

Under different circumstances, Justin would've been a good guy and signed an autograph for Arnold, maybe gave him tips on how to be more good-looking and cool. Justin didn't think he was an entirely bad guy; he just didn't like people that opposed him or got in his way.

To make matters that much worse, Courtney was even _flirting _with Arnold:

"You _are _pretty smart, Arnold?" Courtney asked, smiling. "You're the valedictorian, right...?"

"Yeah," Arnold replied in monotone, his eyes focused on the road.

"And you're the vice pres of the AV club," Courtney continued. "That's pretty impressive. Did you know that I was a C.I.T.-"

"Shut up!" Arnold barked as he pulled up to a stop sign.

Briefly, Arnold turned towards Courtney and glared at her, his eyes full of uncharacteristic fire.

"I've had a crush on you since _seventh grade_," he whispered ferociously. "I'd climb mountains, swim across oceans, _anything _for you! I risked my neck, everything. I even threw every last one of my morals out the window to dig up dirt for you. To help you become a _corrupt_ politician..."

Arnold turned and then returned his focus to the road. Both Courtney and Justin were staring at him with widened eyes, surprised to see so much fervor and anger emanating from a person that was usually quiet and complacent.

"I'm done," Arnold growled, his tone still severe. "You _never_ appreciated me! You didn't even know that I existed and now you choose to acknowledge me in some way. Well, you can just stuff it, Courtney..." Tears started falling out of Arnold's eyes and he sniffed once. "I don't want you anymore..."

The rest of the drive was silent, but Arnold could feel Justin's and Courtney's gazes burning into him like laser beams.

The tears continued to fall and Arnold could hear his heart pounding in his ears, roaring like a series of ocean waves.

There was a sea of flashing red and blue lights, people talking silently and urgently to each other.

Adrenaline spread through Arnold's body like liquid fire. He pushed through the crowd, desperately trying to get through. His stomach was twisting with nerves and anxiety, and he was sure he was going to wretch all over the street if his nerves were wound up any tighter.

It was late on a Saturday night, almost midnight. Right now, he should be at home editing videos and daydreaming about the one day Courtney would finally notice him. Not what was going on now. This happened on TV, in the movies, not in real life...

Finally Arnold managed to get past all of the people. Before a police officer could stop him, he raced over to where a modest tan Carola was parked at an angle.

What immediately caught Arnold's eyes was Kate. Her brown hair was spread all around her face and her right arm was at a weird angle. On her right side, a huge blood stain was seeping through her bedraggled shirt. Somehow, her eyes were open, but they were only slightly open. She became more and more visible as Arnold surged forward and knelt down beside her.

Unable to breathe, he leaned in towards her and she looked up at him with her brown eyes. Her lips trembled and she...smiled up at him.

"Arnold..." she said in a hoarse, croaky whisper. "Arnold...Arnold, you're here...?"

"Of course I'm here!" Arnold whispered, hearing footsteps behind him. "You're one of my best friends, Kate...Why is this happening to you...Of all people...Why...Wh-"

"Arnold...I'm not sure if I'm gonna die..." Kate croaked, cutting him off.

"You're not gonna die!" Arnold asserted, leaning closer and letting tears fill his eyes. "You're _not _gonna die..."

"There's something important...I need...tell you..." Kate said, each word a visible effort for her.

"Anything..," Arnold whispered back, feeling shapes loom over him.

"I love you. I love you. You're the most wonderful and intelligent guy I've ever met. I'd do anything for you..." Kate was having trouble keeping her eyelids open. "I...love you from the bottom of my heart..."

The words hit Arnold like a falling skyscraper. He could see the way Kate's eyes were glowing, the way she smiled. So many times he'd seen that smile and he'd taken it for granted so many times. Watching as Kate tried to smile, still tried to prevail despite her condition, broke Arnold's heart. Weeping like a baby, Arnold kissed her on the lips.

When he pulled away, Arnold caressed her face and watched as Kate opened and closed her eyes.

"I'll love you...no matter what..." she told him. "You don't have to pretend..."

That was when Kate closed her eyes all the way and a hand grabbed the back of Arnold's shirt, pulling him away. Men and women in uniform descended on the scene, setting up stretchers and the back of an ambulance parked a few feet away opened up. Two people grabbed the stretcher and Arnold watched it, struggling to get free and chase after it.

"Kate!" he screamed, reaching out towards her. "KATE! **KATE!**"

Suddenly Arnold was released and an arm was draped around his shoulders. Bewildered, he turned to see a man with dark eyes, chestnut brown hair, and bronzed skin. There was a somber expression on the man's face as he cried. In the back of his mind, Arnold swore that this man could be a relative of Alejandro...

"I'll take you home," the man said, sounding like he had something lodged in his throat.

"Thanks..." Arnold muttered. "I ran here...House isn't very far."

The man was the owner of the Carola...

Sitting in shotgun, Arnold nervously cast looks at him as he drove Arnold home. The man was crying, almost as much as Arnold still was. Sometimes, he'd look out the window and murmur prayers sadly in Spanish. After hearing him a few times, Arnold made a spur of the moment decision and muttered a prayer in German under his breath.

"_Sie wissen Deutsch_?" the man asked, looking sideways at Arnold.

"_Ja_," Arnold replied casually. "A little bit. I've taken two years of formal classes so far. I studied the language extensively before that, too..."

"Really?"

"Someday, I'd like to go to Germany," Arnold said, looking out the window on the passenger side.

"Germany's a very beautiful country," the man said conversationally. "I love the architecture of the buildings. Got to see Oktoberfest. I highly recommend it. My name's Carlos, btw."

He pulled the Carola up the driveway of Arnold's house, then turned to look at him, his face looking ten years older than he actually was.

"I truly can't express how sorry I am..." Carlos murmured, on the verge of tears. "Both to you and your friend. I didn't see her...I..."

"I doubt she'd blame you..." Arnold replied, surprised by his response. "It'll be okay. She'll pull through-"

"I hope so," Carlos cried, bursting into tears again and sobbing as he said a Hail Mary.

"My name's Arnold," Arnold told him. He lightly patted the stranger's shoulder, then climbed out of the car and went inside.

Arnold pulled the car up to the wrought iron gates of Jose's obsidian mansion.

The three of them climbed out of the car and Arnold walked up to the gates. Surprisingly, Jose was right there, standing behind them with his arms folded and a smug look on his face. As soon as the gates swung open, Arnold walked up to Jose and glared up into his face.

"What are you here for?" Jose chuckled, rocking back on his heels. "Ooh! Are you here to gain redemption for your little girlfriend's broken heart? Oh, that's so cute..."

Jose's mocking tone resonated through Arnold and he swiped at his face with his arm.

All day, people had been spreading and perpetuating the rumor that Kate was dead. On Sunday night, Arnold had visited her at the hospital. The image of her lying there in bed, an IV drip attached to her arm, sleeping. She was going to be there for months. Arnold was worried sick about her, but he knew that she was going to live...but she'd been so close to death.

Looking at Jose, Arnold didn't see Carlos as the one that had run Kate over; he saw Jose as the one that had done it. He'd broken Kate's heart and not thought twice about it.

"I have quite a surprise in store for you, you little bastard!" Jose laughed, looking down his nose at Arnold. "I know what your big sissy was up to...You're gonna pay!"

Arnold frowned and stuck his hands in his jeans pockets, then he actually...smiled.

Behind him, Justin and Courtney watched the scene unfold, confused. Neither one could get over how much Jose just looked like an older version of Alejandro. For some reason, Justin found himself glaring at Jose, wanting to punch his face in: it was probably the uncanny resemblance to Alejandro. Courtney wanted to kick him in the crotch for giving Elaine her advantage in the election; Jose was the reason Elaine was bragging that she was going to win. The election was rigged, thanks to _Jose_.

"No, I'm not gonna pay," Arnold replied back calmly. "Ramona did a lot more than you think. I found all of your material for corrupting the election...and destroyed it! I did a little digging and if you try to hack the school computers to help Elaine win the election, well, I have an elite team of computer hackers set up ready to stop you."

Jose's cool was briefly staggered and he raised an eyebrow. "You're bluffing!"

Smirking, Arnold dug his cell phone out of his pants pocket and for a minute or two it looked like he was sending a text message. About a minute later, Arnold looked at Jose with a brighter smile than what he'd had on his face for quite awhile.

"Go take a look at your computer," Arnold challenged.

Rolling his eyes, Jose turned on his heel and headed towards his mansion. Like train cars, Arnold, Courtney, and Justin followed him up the path to his house, through the front doors, past a huge and ostentatious living room, up a set of stairs covered in red velvet carpet and into his private study.

Earnestly, he sat down and turned on his computer. As soon as it turned on, the screen was engulfed in blue and filled with error messages.

With widened eyes, Jose turned and looked at Arnold. Arnold smirked back at him. Filled with rage, Jose fled at Arnold, raising his fist and screaming: "You're working for Al, aren't you, ya little blond bast-"

Courtney intercepted his punch and slapped him across the face, leaving a wicked red mark. Then she launched her knee into his groin. As Jose began to collapse like a cardboard box, Justin walked up and clubbed him on the head.

Snarling, Courtney leaned in towards Jose, grabbing a huge chunk of his hair and yanking it upwards.

"If you mess with the election again, I'll personally come over here and kick you in the balls again," Courtney hissed. "_Nobody _and I mean _nobody _messes with my chance at class president!"

-Alejandro-

"12 o' clock, then."

Duncan and Gwen smile mischievously on my computer screen. Then Duncan lifts a full package of toilet paper up for me to see.

"I was hoping we'd get another chance to TP!" Duncan says, grinning from ear to ear. "Halloween is way too far away!"  
"I can't _wait_ to see the look on Heather's face!" Gwen agrees.

I smirk back and steeple my fingers. By this point, I can definitely consider Duncan and Gwen friends. Not 'friends' in the sense of sharing feelings and stupid trite notions like that. More like two people who share quite a few of my common interests...

"I have much more in mind than just the toilet paper this time..." I tell them, raising an eyebrow and loving the sinister ideas circulating through my brain. "As a matter of fact, I'd call it the pinnacle of my nefarious achievements."

"There's something worse than Owen farts and flaming cat poop?" Duncan looks absolutely ecstatic now. "Damn. Could you save a little of whatever this is and we can whip it at Courtney's house this weekend?"

"I'd hate to be _your _ex-girlfriend," Gwen says, furrowing her brows.

For a second, Gwen turns towards Duncan and they talk silently to each other. A second later, Duncan jogs off, leaving Gwen by herself. She looks around the room a few times and then leans towards the computer screen, her face looking a bit too serious for my taste.

"I don't usually get involved in stuff like this, but...did something happen between you and Heather?" Gwen asks, biting her lip.

"That is none of your business!" I reply, slapping my desk top. The tone of my voice surprises me: I'm getting defensive?

"Sorry, sorry," Gwen says, holding her hands in a gesture of peace. "I'll back off, okay. Let's go back to talking about toilet paper..."

Frowning, I lean towards the screen. Gwen's brows are furrowed and her shoulders slumped. She's acting peculiarly twitchy, not really like herself.

"Why did you ask that?" I ask her, my curiosity piqued.

"Well..." Gwen's eyes wander away from the screen and she looks awkward.

"Well, what?"

"I guess...I think of you as a friend," she replies, then she smiles. "The toilet paper and cat poop things were pretty cool. And you're a pretty cool guy, yourself. I think Duncan likes you, too, he just wouldn't be the type to say it out loud."

For some reason, the sentiment touches me. The two of us are quiet for a second, then I return Gwen's smile and hers widens a bit more as well, revealing teeth.

That's when Duncan returns and waves a stick of dynamite-God knows where he got it-in front of the screen. Despite myself, I laugh, a short and merry laugh. It feels so strange and unfamiliar, it's been so long. Both Duncan and Gwen are giving me weird looks now, but I just laugh harder, falling back in my chair and laughing until tears start trickling out of my eyes.

"Are you having a freaking seizure over there or something?" Duncan asks.

"No...no..." I right the chair and flash another smile at the screen as I dab at my eyes with my shirt sleeve. "I just did not know that we were going to be employing Looney Tunes techniques for tonight's venture. Now all that needs is ACME printed along the side and then we're pretty much golden!"

Duncan and Gwen smile.

"I didn't know you of all people had a sense of humor!" Duncan says while Gwen rolls her eyes.

Suddenly, there's several knocks on my bedroom door.

"_Adios_!" I tell Duncan and Gwen, quickly exiting out of the Skype window on my computer. "Come in!" I yell at the door.

The door opens and Carlos steps in. His eyes are red and bloodshot, he's still in his pajamas, and his usually neat hair is spread around his head like a static electricity halo. Yesterday was his scheduled flight back to New York City where he was going to spend the rest of his month off, but he missed his flight and has been in the guest room all day, sleeping.

As he stands there, it's blatantly obvious to me that he hasn't gotten any sleep whatsoever lately.

"Alejandro, could you drive me to the hospital?"

His question alarms me; I'm instantly on my feet, scoop up the keys to my truck. Without questions, we go down the stairs, and he grabs a coat and slides into a pair of slippers he left at the foot of the stairs. Something's definitely off if Carlos isn't even attending to his personal grooming. Carlos spends more time than any of the Burromuerto men in washing and conditioning his hair alone, which is quite a huge block of time.

If I wasn't worried before, I'm definitely worried now. My revenge plans on Heather will have to wait. As I unlock my truck, I fish my cell phone out of my pants pocket and shoot off a quick text message to Duncan and Gwen, then to my father. Of course, my parents chose _tonight _to be date night...

I've started the truck and pulled out onto the road when I turn and briefly glimpse at Carlos. He looks blankly over at me, fishes a bouquet of daisies from Mom's garden out of his jacket pocket and idly fingers them; he's crying and he looks faraway.

"I picked these earlier today..." he says absentmindedly, picking at one of the bright yellow petals on them. "It's a very small, worthless gesture, barely _any _kind of gesture, really..."

Now he's starting to scare me. Gripping the steering wheel hard, I shoot a quick look at him. "What's going on?"

"You heard about that kid named Kate by now, haven't you...?" Carlos is having trouble speaking.

The turn of conversation surprises me. What Heather said earlier today runs through my mind and Arnold briefly pops into my mind. Right now, Carlos looks just as upset and defeated as Arnold did, minus the bandage that was draped across the bridge Arnold's nose.

"Yes..." I say, tapping the steering wheel with my fingers, not liking where this is going.

"I'm the evil guy that ran her over!" Carlos sobs, sticking the flowers back in the pocket of his jacket. "Oh God, Alejandro...I might just be a murderer! She was barely alive last time I saw her. If she dies, it's all my fault. I was driving to the airport and I didn't see her...and...I can't leave town now. I just can't. Carmen will understand that I couldn't meet her in NYC. Oh..."

For several minutes, Carlos kept sobbing and mumbling, some of what he was saying coherent, the rest not so much. It wrenched my heart to see Carlos so upset. All of my life, he'd always had such a huge smile on his face, and he was so optimistic it made me want to throttle him.

Of course, being a Burromuerto man, he was capable of anything and everything; he easily succeeded at becoming a professional soccer player. But Carlos was never egotistical or hotheaded. A few times when I saw him on TV, after his team had won, he always said the victory was because of every last member of his team. He gave little kids pep talks and told them to follow their dreams; he was the MVP and the guy everybody wanted to be because of his smile and his benevolent spirit.

As I watched the houses on either side of the road flash by, I frowned. _Why did I look up to Jose instead of Carlos? Why am I more like Jose...instead of Carlos...?_

I looked over at Carlos and could feel his pain. He was a broken man and from the way he was crying, the way he kept babbling...it showed his humanity.

When I pulled into the hospital parking lot, I stopped the truck and looked over at Carlos. Carlos tried to open the passenger door, but I reached out and grabbed his wrist, stopping him. Startled, Carlos spun around in his seat and looked at me, utterly confused.

Then I leaned over and hugged him.

My own eyes felt kind of watery, but I pushed the tears back and smiled. Eventually, Carlos hugged me back and I could hear his shuddery sobs. Soon enough, he stopped and pulled away, wiping at his eyes with his jacket sleeve.

"You're not evil, Carlos," I tell him, staring at the steering wheel. "You're as far away from it as anybody could be." I turn to face him and wear a bitter smile. "Jose and I are the evil ones. You're the good guy, the only one in the family..."

Carlos gives me a wry smile and furrows his brows, lifting up the flowers. "You might say that you're evil, Alejandro, but you're really not..." Carlos looks at me and takes a deep breath. "But I don't know what you really are. You're the only one that really knows your true blue essence; I can only tell you what I see and observe."

Shrugging, Carlos opens the truck door and steps out.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anybody about the man hug," he says, much more lighthearted than before.

"You better not," I warn.

"I love you too, little bro."


	18. Chapter 18

-18

"What's it like in Germany at this time of year?" Arnold casually asked Carlos, leaning back in the chair and looking at him with curious eyes.

He was trying to forget the knot of anxiety gnawing away in his chest. The two of them were sitting in chairs right beside Kate's bed. A bouquet of bright yellow daisies sat on the end table next to the bed; they were so cheerful and bright, just like Kate herself could be. A wave of relief washed over Arnold when he saw Kate's chest rise and fall slowly; she was just sleeping now.

_Soon, all of this'll be over_, Arnold thought to himself. _Soon. Soon. Soon. I'll make it up to you, I promise..._

"It's absolutely beautiful," Carlos replied, cradling his knee against his chest. "I remember walking through the Berlin Gardens sometime in late October last year. There was this long line of trees that I passed under and their branches were filled with such gorgeous leaves. Just about all of them had leaves that were red, gold, or orange, like the colors of a flame..."

Carlos closed his eyes and inhaled, reliving the moment. "The air was so crisp and cold, refreshing. I remember being able to see the Grunewaldturm Tower off in the distance, looming over everything. And the lake nearby was silvery and beautiful..." Suddenly, Carlos opened his eyes and smiled a little, blushing.

"You're really good at description," Arnold told him, tugging at a strand of his blond hair. "I've never been there, yet I can imagine everything you're describing..."

"I just happen to remember the Berlin Gardens really well," Carlos admitted sheepishly, his smile a bit wider than it really needed to be.

"It must be a very stunning tourist spot..."

"No, it's not that." Grinning, Carlos pulled a small black box out of the pocket of his jacket and flipped it open: it held a small, glittering engagement ring in it. "The Berlin Gardens are where I first saw the love of my life."

Biting his lip, Arnold furrowed his brows. He'd been talking to Jose for about half an hour now for something to do until Kate woke up and just because he happened to be there. It was strange how well he was hitting it off with _Alejandro's oldest brother_ of all people. What confused Arnold now was how asking Jose was Germany was like had led to him randomly whipping out an engagement ring...Was he a stalker?

The other two Burromuertos were already a bit wonky in some way: Jose was an all-around jerk with very ill-conceived and sadistic goals when he could just be living in the lap of luxury for the rest of his life; Alejandro was constantly in pursuit of power, a master of manipulation and deceit and using it for a pointless position like class president when he could working to become a lawyer or CEO or something else instead. It'd just make sense that Carlos turned out to be less than his charismatic, kindly outer shell, too.

"Her name is Carmen," Carlos continued as if Arnold had inquired further about what he meant by his comment. "We've been dating for awhile now and before I left Spain to visit my family here in the U.S., I bought an engagement ring because I'm thinking about proposing to her as soon as I get back. The first time I saw her was in the Berlin Gardens, but we didn't formally meet until I saw her again in Spain..."

Sighing, Carlos holds the box lose to his heart.

"I'm fully aware that I'm very feminine for being a man..." Carlos said, closing his eyes. "But I believe in true love. And I've found it, Arnold. I've been carrying the ring with me everywhere, to remind me of Carmen."

Again, Carlos sighed contentedly and opened his eyes, looking up at the ceiling.

_I know exactly how you feel..._Arnold thought to himself with a wry smile. _But unlike you, I fell for the wrong girl._

Arnold looked at Carlos, at the smile on his face and the way his eyes lit up. Then he looked over at the bed, where Kate was fast asleep. Watching her, something stirred within Arnold and he found himself smiling a little. Tentatively, he stood up and wandered over to stand beside Kate's bed, then he lowered himself to her level and reached out, taking her hand.

Hearing his own heart beat slow and steady in his chest, Arnold squeezed Kate's hand, wondering if he could fall in love with her. Be as in love with her as Carlos was with Carmen.

Suddenly, his reverie was interrupted when Kate let out a small groan. Immediately, Arnold swooped in, his face mere inches away from hers, watching as her eyes opened. As soon as she saw him, Kate smiled, her smile reaching her eyes.

"I'm alive," she whispered, her smile growing wider. "I know I'm alive since you're here! And I can't be dreaming. No more dreaming. No more unreality."

Her words made no coherent sense. Still smiling, Arnold furrowed his brows, absolutely confused.

"What?"

"Have you gotten together with Courtney, yet?" Kate asked, blinking and biting her lip.

"_No!_" Arnold was horrified. "I don't _want _her. It took me way too long to realize it, Kate, but I was a complete idiot. You've always been there for me. I'm sorry I didn't see that sooner and that you went to Jose to find the things _I_ should have been giving you in the first place..."

What surprised Arnold was the way Kate's eyes widened. Somehow, he could tell that she was remembering the kiss they'd shared when he'd desperately come to see if she was okay the night of being run over by a car. Gently, Arnold reached out and cupped her face in his hands, looking directly at her, serious and focused.

"I want to make it up to you," Arnold cried. "It's taking quite a bit for me to admit that I'm wrong. I've been so worried about you! I want to learn to love you, to fall in love with you. Will you give an intellectual fool a second chance?"

The words came out in a mottled up rush and Arnold could see the bewilderment on Kate's face as she tried to absorb all of it. Finally, she took a deep breath and smiled, reaching up and taking his face in her hands.

"Duh," she said, grinning full-on now. "I would've waited for you even if you did go out with Courtney." Cheekily, Kate added, "_The tide is high, but I'm holdin' on. I'm gonna be your number 1. _I used to listen to that song obsessively...Oh, I'm rambling now. One more thing, I'm sorry I even went out with that asshole Jose."

She just stopped talking and stared at him. He stared back. It was a beautiful moment that really set Arnold's heavy soul free. What surprised him was how badly he wanted to kiss Kate, even though he knew it'd be a really inappropriate thing to do right now. That was when Kate closed her eyes and puckered her lips, reaching out to him and flexing her fingers, a strange "kiss me" gesture.

Just as he was about to oblige, Arnold felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see Carlos, smiling awkwardly.

"Very sorry to interrupt such a touching moment..." he said, feeling sheepish.

"It's okay," Arnold replied, stepping away and letting him through.

Kate's eyes opened and she immediately stopped her gesture, feeling herself blush in absolute embarrassment. Pulling at the blankets on the bed, Kate struggled to sit up. Much to her further embarrassment, Carlos helped her up. As soon as she was sitting, Kate looked at him, chewing on her lip.

"Who _are _you?" she asked, frowning.

"Carlos..." he said, folding his hands and smiling sheepishly. The smile quickly faded. "I'd prefer to introduce myself to you under much more...well, _pleasant _conditions..." He looked at Kate. "I'm the one who accidentally ran you over."

As soon as he said that, Kate's eyes widened and she looked at him. She was silent for a long minute and Arnold could see Carlos getting more harried and nervous. Sticking his hands in his jeans pockets, Arnold looked away and then back, watching as Kate took a deep breath. She looked at Carlos' face for a long time, then she noticed the daisies on the end table. With trembling hands, she reached out and picked them up.

"A-are these for m-me?" she stammered.

"Yes," Carlos replied, trying to stay level-headed. "I...I honestly can't express how sorry I am...I-"

Unexpectedly, Kate reached out and hugged Carlos. The act surprised both Carlos and Arnold. After several seconds, Kate let go and smiled at Carlos, looking guilty.

"I heard you and Arnold talking," she said, smiling. "Is your Carmen a feisty redhead that can kick a soccer ball and cook like crazy in the kitchen?"

Carlos smiled and nodded. "That's her."

"She's my older sister!" Kate cried, smiling from ear to ear. "So _you're_ the guy she's been talking to me about? She's absolutely _loco _about you!"

Now Arnold was confused again. Then he remembered that Kate's last name was Hernandez, so of course there was the possibility she might have Spanish relatives, but this was the last thing he'd expected. He felt like he was a minor role in a crazy teen soap opera now!

"For Carmen's sake, I forgive you," Kate said, smirking. "Plus, after hearing the way _you_ were talking about her, it won't be long before you're my brother-in-law anyway!"

Carlos smiled back, relieved. "Carmen did mention that she was a foreign exchange student and that she had a younger sister...You both have the same brown eyes, too."

Arnold sank back into his chair and watched Kate chat animatedly to Carlos as if they'd known each other for years, instead of just having first met and being under the bizarre circumstances they were in. He rolled his eyes and got ready to wait for a _loong _time, knowing how long Kate could talk-

That was when he noticed somebody looking in through the door to Kate's hospital room. He remembered Carlos had mentioned that he'd come here with Alejandro, but Arnold had doubted Alejandro would be making any kind of debut in the hospital room anyway. Curiosity bit at him and Arnold got up and wandered over to the door.

When he peered around it, the door gave way with a squeak and he accidentally pushed it all the way open. Out in the hall, Arnold saw a tall, muscular figure racing off down the hallway. Shaking his head, Arnold turned to re-enter the room, but that was when he noticed something lying on the floor.

It was a 3 by 5 inch photo of Heather...

-Alejandro-

Ever since I was a little boy, I always rooted for the villains and evil scientists in books and TV programs. I know it might be an irrational, maybe even a very strange goal, but someday, I'd like to rule the world.

Whenever anyone's asked me what career path I'd like to pursue, I usually say lawyer or CEO or something like that. Even my mother and father believe that I want to become a lawyer; Carlos thinks I want to be a successful businessman. But it's not the truth.

The only person who knows the truth is Jose, because he has the exact same goal. Carlos may have figured out quite a huge chunk of the story and that brought quite a bit to light for me. Thing is, our sibling rivalry goes beyond one of us eventually besting the other. If Jose got his way, he'd eradicate me completely out of the picture and go forward with his own world domination plans.

I'm the only one standing in his way.

Being completely honest with myself: Yes, I want power. I'm evil, manipulative, underhanded, a true blue villain.

Despite my ultimate goal, I'm always searching for an opportunity to dominate and assert myself, a chance to be top dog. I like feeling superior. When I first came to Cress, the elections for class president was the very first thing that caught my eye. That position was my ultimatum. My one goal.

That's when Heather came along. For awhile, I was distracted from my major goal.

She captured my heart, managed to be the one successful arrow that Cupid shot. My desires to have her and call her mine started overpowering my other goals until _**she **_became my _numero uno prioridad _over running for class president. As soon as we became an official couple and she told me that she loved me, I found myself losing sight of my original goals. Maybe even becoming a different person.

I admit that as soon as Jose brought up the elections again that night at the pizza place where I work, the idea entered my head again. When Heather wasn't looking, I signed up as a candidate for class president. I was frustrated that Jose was around, wreaking havoc, acting superior. _I just had to reassert myself by winning the title of class president_.

Earlier today, I thought that I could get rid of Heather and prioritize my goals again. I thought that could live with competing against her and winning, if it meant that I could have this title. I thought I'd heckle her by TPing her house, maybe even dying her cat Bart her least favorite color. Leaving Owen farts in _her _locker. Setting off loud, obnoxious firecrackers close to her mansion to keep her up.

And the cous de gras?

Burning her favorite field of flowers in all of Cress...

Vengeance for when she'd _cheated _on me with Jose.

Then I heard Carlos talking about Carmen. But what really caught me was Arnold's heartfelt confession to Kate. I'd only been checking to see how much longer Jose would take, but that just got me. Carlos was right...I'm a huge romantic sap.

If nerds and my older brother get to have fairytale style love, then I should try it, too. The more I think about it, the more I realize that I still love and adore Heather as much, if not more, than Arnold loves Kate. No matter how hard I try, I want to hug and kiss her more than I want to beat her out for the position of class president. That last Thursday night, all last week, it was so beautiful and magical. I've never been happier than that in all of my life.

Carlos has the keys to the truck.

I find myself running through the streets of Cress, as quickly as a lightning bolt. It's not like it was on Saturday. Now I'm running towards Heather's house. I can feel my heart beating faster, stronger. Every step I take gets me closer and closer to my destination. The cars and buildings around me seem to merge into a blur and I'm breathless as her face blossoms and opens like the bud of a rose in my mind's eye.

Soon enough, I find myself in Heather's backyard. The trellis is propped up against the side of the mansion again, with a few holes and patches here and there, but nothing unfixable. Quickly, I scramble up the trellis, right to her window. I start knocking on her window frame.

"Heather! Heather!" I knock over and over, consistent. "_Heather!_"

Eventually, she appears at the window and she's glaring at me, the pupils of her eyes a pair of daggers. Angrily, she pulls open the window and leans out, our faces mere millimeters away, and glares at me.

"Go away," she seethes through clenched teeth.

"Heather..." I look at her. Now that I'm here, I have absolutely nothing meaningful to say...

"Go away, _bastard_," she says again, narrowing her eyes. She starts closing the window, but I reach out and clasp it, holding it up.

"I want to talk to you," I tell her, making a point of looking directly into her eyes. "_Please_."

She looks at me for a long moment and I wait, impatiently, until she sighs heavily and then backs away. "I better not regret this," she growls, angry.

Awkwardly, I climb in through the window and land on the floor. Climbing to my feet, I realize that this room is becoming way too familiar to me. I just wish I was here under different circumstances than what they are right now.

"Why _are _you here?" Heather asks, glaring at me. "To seduce me into tripping up on the campaign tomorrow? Or do you conveniently happen to have a jar of Owen's farts with you to make my room smell like a permanent _dump heap_?"

She gets angrier with every word and starts pacing the room on her crutches.

"Everything was just a freaking _sham_!" she cries. "You were just using me! You _never _loved me, did you? It was all just a great big fat lie and you're just a great big asshole bast-"

"I'm here to apologize," I reply, looking weakly at her. "To possibly...get you back..."

"What a joke!" she screams, walking over and pressing her nose against mine. "You conniving, lying, backstabbing asshole!"

Her spittle sprays into my face and the fury, the accusations in her voice make me _so angry_. Now I really wish I had a jar of Owen's farts with me. I can feel my fury rising, flaring from toes to my head, feel the smoke curtailing out of my ears.

"_You_ cheated on _me_ with Jose!" I scream back. "You're a _cheater_ and a _backstabber_!"

"Oh yeah..." Heather reaches out and pushes me. "Yeah, you're _so_ noble and valiant! Yeah, you're such a fricking white knight, Ale-bastard! You would've dumped me in a heartbeat for a girl that was hotter than me! I'll bet once you got me outta the election you planned on duping Courtney next! Then Elaine..."

"All of the guys _you_ dated before _me_ were for your stupid little reputation!" I retaliate, folding my arms. "You would've dumped me if Justin asked you to take him back. The only reason you even went out with me was because you knew I'd get you that stupid vote! You never even asked me if I wanted to run. You automatically assumed that I'd sit off to the sidelines and be your little sexy boy trump card. _Just. Like Justin._"

Heather grunts and stomps her good foot, and we continue glaring at each other like a pair of territorial bulls.

"GET OUT!" Heather walks up to me again and gives me a steely glare. "Get out and never come back. I mean it. _Never _come back."

I back up a few steps towards the window, never taking my eyes off of her. I'm still fuming with anger and spite, her words biting and stinging. This isn't anything like the playful banter I had with her when we first met. _This is war._

Huffing, I stick my foot out the window and start to climb out. Just before I climb all the way out, I feel hands wrapping around one of my biceps and pulling me. Pull, pull, pull and I find myself back in Heather's room again. And she has her arms wrapped around my chest, looks at me with an unreadable expression.

"I didn't mean it," she says, looking at me and frowning. "Any of it."

I look back at her and she has my full attention. _¿Por qué? No sé..._

"I'm s...sorry," she says, having trouble saying the words, but from the sincere look on her face I can tell that she means it.

Feeling myself shrivel up like a grapefruit, I reach out and place both of my hands on her face and caress her soft cheeks. "_Lo siento_," I whisper. "I'm so sorry, from the bottom of my heart..."

The words were hard for me to say, too. I can feel a lump in my throat the size of a ball of yarn, but I'm glad that the words are able to come out.

"Alejandro..." she sighs, leaning against my chest.

I back away from her gently and sigh, standing up. She looks up at me, confused.

"Alejandro?"

"I...There's still the elections, Heather."

She looks at me and frowns, leaning against one of her crutches. For a long second, we look at each other and then I head back to the window, feeling awkward and strange. I can't take any more of this. But she won't let me leave. She comes over and grabs my wrist, looks up at me urgently.

"I'll drop out of the election."

Her words hit like an atom bomb. My eyes are the size of bowling balls right now and I blink several times, wondering if I've lost my sense of hearing. "_¿Qué?_"

"You heard me," she replies, sounding kind of irritated now. "I...care too much about you to let this go any further." Her cheeks are the color of tomatoes now. "Don't be expecting this again, though, 'cause I won't do it again. And...in return for this, _you _have to make me prom queen!"

"So...you want to go to prom with me?" I wiggle my eyebrows at her, sliding my hands around her waist. Things are turning around so quickly, my head's spinning like a whirligig, but I adapt quickly, too, so it's no problem.

"Only if I get to be prom queen," she warns, looking at me sternly.

"So...you're _mi novia _again?" I ask, pulling her closer. "If not, then I've got some work to do. I got you once, I can get you again." I make purring noises for emphasis.

"Just shut up and kiss me before I change my mind..." she replies, rolling her eyes.

Oh, how I love this girl.

To oblige her, I lean in and give her a long, sweet kiss. When I pull away, we look at each other and neither one of us can help smiling. Feeling giddy, I scoop her up into my arms and spin around once, laughing as she demands to know what I'm doing. She starts telling me to put her down when I spin around again. I lower her onto her bed and then lay down next to her, folding my arms behind my head.

Before she can say anything again, I roll over and pull her closer to me, wrapping my arms around her.

"I'll never get over how cute you are," I tell her, speaking my thoughts aloud.

"Flattery will get you nowhere," Heather replies.

"Are you certain of that?"I kiss her cheek.

"Yeah."

"I don't think so," I tell her in a silky smooth tone of voice.

The conversation ends after that and leads into an intense make-out session. My heart goes into hyper drive and I'm fueled by big bouts of adrenaline. I'm a living fork of lightning, ecstatic and absolutely in love.

My eyes open and I discover that I've been sleeping. Rolling over, I see Heather curled up in my arms, smiling and breathing softly. Holding her close, I nuzzle my cheek against hers and briefly let my thoughts wander to Carlos and Carmen.

"_The Berlin Gardens are where I first saw the love of my life." _Now I know why Carlos' eyes light up whenever he talks about Carmen.

I first saw the love of my life in the hallways of Cress High School. Now she's curled up in my arms and I'm holding her close, holding her tight. I made a mistake, but I'm glad I took the time to fix it, even if the move was last minute and unexpected.

Now I'm never going to let go of her again...


	19. Chapter 19Last Chapter

-19

Elaine stood, hand on her hip, watching as men in blue coveralls kept marching out of Jose's mansion like colonies of ants, carrying various pieces of furniture. Her eyebrows furrowed as she watched two guys come around front toting the queen-sized mattress of Jose's bed. Moisture prickled behind her eyes, but she quickly swiped at them. Frowning, she turned and looked at Jose standing off in the distance.

His arms were folded and he was frowning, deep in thought. Carefully, Elaine scampered over to stand next to him and lightly touched his arm.

"You...you don't really have to claim bankruptcy, do you?" she asked.

Of all the people in the world, Jose was the only one Elaine really cared about. In her book, it'd been a miracle when he moved to Cress. He was the only other person she knew that shared her goal of wanting to rule the world; he'd promised to make her his queen. And no matter how many girls he'd been with, he'd never betrayed her. He always kept in her on in the plan, but today, Elaine was still waiting for him to give her an update.

"I only lost the stocks," Jose replied, shooting her a cocky smirk. "I'm rolling in oodles of cash, babe. I've even got an offshore bank account in Switzerland."

"You had me kinda worried there," she said with a sheepish smile. "Why are you leaving?"

Jose was silent, making her stomach tie into a bunch of jumbled up knots. Biting her lip, she walked up to him and looked right into his green eyes. When she was only an inch away, Jose reached up and put his index finger under her chin and tilted her face towards his.

"Al pretty much won," Jose admitted, the words feeling like a bunch of sharp nails in his mouth. "There's only so much meddling I can do. As long as he's got the allies he's got, I don't stand a chance. That stupid little bastard has friends that could be the next frigging Bill Gates! All of my computers are fried; my security cameras are on the fritz..."

With each word, Jose seemed to be getting more and more frustrated. Flustered, Elaine leaned forward and pressed her forehead against his. "It's not like you to give up!" she cried. "I'm building up quite a bit of influence. I even have one of Heather's stupid flunkies under my wing and I'm pretty sure I could draw out the other one with sparkly bangles or something-"

"I'm not giving up," Jose said with conviction. "I just know when to retreat and regroup. Now is unfortunately one of those times."

Unbelieving, Elaine pulled away and balled her fists. "Alejandro couldn't have done _anything-_"

"Don't underestimate him!" Jose howled at her. "I made that mistake...And now, look at my car, Elaine." Jose's convertible had a huge dent in the hood. "My shoes." Jose's shoes were covered in charred cat poop. "My bedroom is filled with an unmentionable, horrible, terrible stench. And now, all of the older women and my friends here in Cress..." Jose's lips trembled and his voice came out squeaky: "They think I have a...tiny penis."

"I can't believe it!" Elaine's pupils shrunk. "I'm not the only one who knows anymore..."

"_Elaine!_" Jose squawked, eyes darting around nervously. "My cell phone's broken and all of the pictures I had of you on it are gone. Everybody knows about what happened with Kate and about my meddling in the school election. Because of Al, that little shit, I'm ruined! He beat me. Beat me good..."

Angry tears falling from his eyes, Jose looked down at the ground and Elaine continued to stare at him.

"Alejandro...did all of that?"

"That's only one-third of what he did," Jose replied, not looking up. "Now do you see why...? Are you _satisfied_?"

Sighing, Elaine walked over to him and put her hand on his back. "Will you...come back to get me?"

"Yeah, I'll keep in touch," Jose sniffed. "Could you do me a favor?"

"Sure, anything..."

"Kick Al's ass in the election today."

Courtney was the only one wearing a pant suit for the school election, but that was just fine with her. As she stood behind the red velvet curtains on the school stage, she peered out at the auditorium filled with her fellow students. The sound of their conversation filled the space everywhere, washing over everything like a wave. Today, Courtney felt ferociously confident.

She clenched her fists at her sides and let out a breath. Now that the biggest meddler in the election was gone, she was going to kick butt! She didn't need Arnold, or the AV Club, or any more dirt; she could win as just as an aggressive and strong politician. Right now, Courtney felt so powerful: she was going to beat _all_ of her opponents.

Courtney turned to see Justin watching her, smiling. He gave her a thumbs up.

They'd been working together for a week and as Courtney looked back on it, Justin had practically bent over backwards helping her in the campaign. He'd spent his study halls hanging up her posters when he should have been getting help in math, wearing her campaign buttons even though they clashed with his clothes, even rallied all of his friends to vote for her. Even though she'd persistently refused to go out with him and all of his romantic advances, he'd _still _helped her...

"You definitely have _my_ vote,"Justin told her, winking.

Courtney smiled a little, not meeting his eyes. "Thanks..."

"No problem!" Justin said brightly.

"No..." Courtney looked at him full-on, straight into his hypnotizing blue eyes. "Not just for that. For everything. When I win today, some of it'll be because of _you_."

What surprised Courtney was that Justin looked a bit taken aback. He looked at her and blinked, unsure of how to react. Maybe it was because of the ungrateful responses Courtney had been launching at him all week.

Frowning, Courtney felt something prickling at her. Arnold's accusatory remarks sailed through her mind and she could feel a lump forming in her throat. He was right and he'd disbanded from Courtney's campaign because of being mistreated and rightly so.

Furrowing her brow, Courtney tilted her head and looked at Justin. He really was attractive and not that bad a guy. Not really sure what was compelling her, Courtney took another step towards him and then wrapped her arms around his neck. Both of them were blushing from the close proximity. Before she could lose her nerve, Courtney dived in and planted a kiss on Justin's lips, kissing him for close to a minute before pulling away.

Justin's eyes were wide now, but he quickly rebounded and started smiling.

"Don't think too much about it, stud," Courtney teased, batting her eyelashes at him.

"I've been waiting for that all week..." Justin smirked. "I knew you'd eventually come around."

Rolling her eyes, Courtney pulled away from him and folded her arms.

"I'll see _you _after school today," she told him as she walked towards the curtains again. "_You're_ treating me to dinner."

"Hey!" Courtney turned and looked back at Justin. "No offense, but...could you wear something better than that frumpy pant suit? You're way too hot for-"

"Just wait and see..." Courtney cut him off, blushing as she turned back around.

Walking out onto stage, Courtney lightly touched her lips and smiled. She'd felt a little bit of a spark back there...

-Alejandro-

I just can't wipe the smirk off of my face.

I can bet that Jose received quite a few unpleasant surprises this morning. Since I just couldn't disappoint Duncan and Gwen, we reassigned the night's load of pranks to a new victim...

I smiled as I sent a slew of text messages to Jose's friends. Despite how late it was tonight, I'd convinced Heather's friends, Lindsay, Beth, and surprisingly Sandra, to help me spread _mierda _about Jose to all of his friends and potential girlfriends. Tomorrow morning, Jose's reputation was going to be sinking deeper than the Titanic.

As soon as I was done, I turn to Duncan and Gwen. They both nod and then Duncan holds up a stinking paper bag, unceremoniously dropping it ten feet down onto Jose's front stoop. Then he brings out his army knife and clenches it between his teeth as I pick the lock on Jose's bedroom window. Jose was going to be out until at least two in the morning because of his party boy habits, so we have ample time for everything I want to do.

"I've always wanted to do something like this!" Duncan says around the shaft of the knife, eyes wide and wild.

I break the lock on the window and then push it open. "I deactivated Jose's security system, but it'll be back online in about an hour..." My eyes widen when I see an unexpected message pop up on my cell phone screen. "Never mind. Looks like we've got more time than I thought."

To my utter surprise, Arnold sent me a text message saying that he'd deactivated Jose's security system indefinitely. Well, I suppose I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Duncan crawled in through the window, followed by Gwen, and then I came in last, closing the window behind us. Jose's bedroom was bathed in shadow, but I only had to walk a few steps to find the door leading to the rest of the house. Duncan found Jose's closet and I lingered around long enough to see him pull one of Jose's suits off of the hangers and start butchering it with his knife.

Gwen and I crept down the hall and I led her to Jose's study. Inside, I could make out the shapes of at least six computer monitors and a few lap tops. I sat down at one of the computers and turned it on, Gwen peering over my shoulder.

"Are you sure Jose's not gonna press charges for breaking and entering?" she asked.

She hadn't been as forthcoming for this particular venture as Duncan had, but I could understand her hesitancy.

"How do you think he was able to get all of the money he has?" I refute, waiting for the computer to load all the way.

"I thought he was the creator of some social networking site..." Gwen replies.

"That's probably one of his covers," I reply as I easily guess Jose's password and gain access. "I have sources of my own, Gwen. I've lived all over the world and have friends in all of those places. Jose is nowhere near innocent. He's a drug lord with an empire that stretches from the Mexican border to New England. He even has some of his business going on here."

"Holy crap!"

I start opening Jose's document files and I'm not surprised to see all of the photos of Elaine. Some are really risque. Right off the bat, I start dumping those into the virtual trash can, along with every other file on the computer. After this, I'll have to see if I can install a virus or something to keep Jose from being able to run any antivirus or restoration properly.

"As a matter of fact, I think he's on the FBI's most wanted list," I continue. "Thing is, he's probably under a different alias there than with his own name. What we're doing tonight, I'd say it's a favor. Jose won't press charges because his ego's so big and he can't bear any kind of thought of admitting defeat to me..." I smirk.

"Why don't you turn him in?" Gwen asks, gripping the back of the chair.

I frown and stop what I'm doing, turning to look at her with steely eyes. "I have my reasons. They're none of your business."

Taking a deep breath, Gwen backs away. "You don't have to get so defensive!"

"How about you go assist Duncan in shredding Jose's clothes or...something?"

"I'll help clear out Jose's computers," Gwen replies, turning on the one next to me and sitting down.

The computer hums and the screen glows as Gwen waits for it to start all the way up.

"I guess you and Heather worked things out?" she asks casually, not looking at me.

"Yes," I sigh, forgetting Jose for a moment and feeling great again.

I lean back in the chair and smile.

I'm sitting in a hard metal chair. Elaine and Courtney are sitting in the chairs next to me, glaring at each other. There's tension in the air and the high possibility of another cat fight. Every so often, Elaine shoots a glare in my direction, but I just ignore her.

What has my attention is that Heather's sitting right in the front row. It was a major sacrifice on her part to give up this position and I can see that from the look of uncertainty that keeps crossing her face, but when she notices me looking at her, she shoots a smile at me. On either side of her are Lindsay and Beth and next to Beth is Heather's newest friend Sandra. All four of them are wearing "Vote Alejandro" shirts. The display kind of touches me.

Too bad Duncan and Gwen thought the T-shirts looked stupid...

Suddenly, everybody's attention diverts their attention to the principal and vice-principal as they walk up on stage. As usual, they're arguing like an old married couple. Mr. McClean gets in one last comment before he ascends the podium and looks out at everybody.

"Okay, today you guys are voting for the Junior class president," he says, looking irritated. "Your candidates are Courtney, Elaine, and Alejandro. Each one will give a three minute speech. No _more _than three minutes." He shoots a look at Courtney. "After that, we'll release you guys to vote. Vote for the candidate that best supports your views. Blah, blah, blah. This isn't a popularity contest, blah, blah, blah...Elaine, you're up first."

I can feel myself bristling as Elaine struts up to the podium and flips her hair as if she doesn't have a care in the world. It almost makes me want to barf when the vice principal leans forward and seems to be getting a little too excited about this candidate's speech. Now that I think about it, Elaine looks a _lot _like the vice principal...

"Hey, I'll bet you guys remember me," she crows to the crowd in her faux sugary sweet voice. "I'm a much better choice than Courtney or Alejandro. I even scared Heather to the point of dropping out of the election..." Elaine leans forward and pounds the podium top with the palms of her hands. "I can get all of you exactly what you want for this school. We could have prom in _New York City_. I could get you guys that tennis team, that basketball court. I have connections, people. Powerful and _rich_ connections! Plus, I can be _very _persuasive. This is more than just a position about reputation...this is my stand to make Cress High School _the _most posh place to be, the school everybody wants to go to..."

Wearing a snake's smile, Elaine leans forward more, her hair hanging around her face like a deceptive golden halo. "_I_ can get more male models to come here. Justin's not the only one in the entire world. There's _more_. And with the right tweaks, I could get a whole slew of superstars to come here. Maybe even talent agents. I'll bet all of you have dreamed about being a star at one point or another..." She leans back and pauses for dramatic effect. "I can make that happen. Vote for me and there's a lot that I can do." Before she turns, she says one last thing into the microphone: "Also, if you didn't already know...the vice principal's my mom..."

The crowd bursts into loud applause and raucous, unnecessary cheering as Elaine walks away and sits back down, looking smug. Looking over at the vice principal, her face is a smug reflection of Elaine's. The family resemblance is evident. Elaine knows how to set everything out on the table and tempt people, like a salesman at a school fundraiser. Her smug attitude ticks me off, but I know that I can beat her. If she thinks she's winning just because she can manipulate and lure successfully, she's dead wrong.

_I'm_ the master of manipulation. She's just an above-average participant in the art.

McClean rolls his eyes as he steps up to the podium again. He looks like he'd rather be anywhere else but here. "Courtney."

Just as McClean is stepping away, Courtney appears right in front of the podium and grips the microphone on it in a vice. Her knuckles are ghost white and she looks absolutely furious, gritting her teeth and ready to explode like a volcano.

"_Elaine!_"Courtney shrieks into the microphone. "I doubt you'd be able to deliver what you're promising! As soon as _you_ got the position, you wouldn't take any input from anybody! Everything would be your way or the highway. _You'd_ be worse than Heather and that's saying something."

Courtney backs away from the microphone and takes a deep breath, composing herself before continuing. "I want to be class president to truly help out this school. Unlike the previous class president, I'd listen to what you guys had to say. For example, if you want more vegetarian choices on the menu, I'll find a way to get them there. Just because Elaine says that she can get you prom in New York City, there's more to this position than that. Class president is a representation of all of you and that person needs to be honest, responsible, a true citizen. Before I say anything more, I tried to undermine Heather's chances of winning through corruption. I took advantage of the AV Club, especially Arnold. I want to say...that I'm sorry to all of you members of the AV Club, my fellow peers, and especially Alejandro and Heather..."

She turns to me and inclines her head; I incline my head back, letting her know that I'm listening. Courtney smiles slightly. "Now that I've said that, I continue by saying that I'd like to be your class president because I intend to hold the position with integrity. I intend to be that citizen, to properly represent our class. I'll do better than superstars and male models. This isn't about becoming famous! This is about improving what we already have. Together, we can make this school better. We'll start small and then eventually, we may just have the best school in the state! We already have the best test scores and staff. We're already the leaders in sports. We've already got Justin, the number 1 teen male model in the U.S.! We've even got Alejandro, the best skateboarder in South America!" Courtney gestures at me and I'm surprised as everybody looks at me and start cheering. My attention briefly diverts to Heather and she smiles at me, seemingly impressed by this new bit of information I had yet to tell her or anyone for that matter...

"Why not perpetuate what we have and continue being on the top?" Courtney asks, beating the podium with her hand. Off to the side, McClean starts tapping the face of his watch, looking irritated. "We _are_ Cress High School!" Courtney pumps her fist in the air.

Then she turns and returns to her seat. The cheers and applause in the auditorium are even louder this time than last. Appealing to the students' school spirit was a very good move on Courtney's part. For a brief second, she almost got _my _vote. McClean marches up to the podium again and it takes him an entire minute and a half to get the auditorium to quiet down. Once he does, he sighs and says: "Okay, Alejandro...You're the last one up."

Smiling, I walk up to the podium, my back straight and my shoulders squared, radiating confidence. Courtney and Elaine might be hard acts to follow, but it always is the best for last, correct? I look out at the crowd and my eyes are instantly drawn to Heather. She smiles up at me and I smile back, wondering what's going through her mind.

"I don't know if I can be as convincing as Elaine and Courtney, but I'll see what I can do," I begin, attempting fake modesty. "To be honest, I can do much, much more than just skateboard. Like Courtney was saying, I'll represent you all with the utmost respect and goodwill. I'll be sure to make the junior class look as absolutely impressive and stupendous as we really are. On top of that, I can personally guarantee that any and all problems you bring to me will be solved some way somehow. I'll listen to all of the other members of student council with the utmost respect; I'm very receptive to others' opinions and can play fair. Not to brag too much, but...I'm almost _over_-qualified for this position. I've been in a campaign to help my mother become the mayor of the last city I lived in; I've helped at soup kitchens, donated to charity, and been involved in almost every school activity at all of my previous schools."

"I may not be able to get you male models like Elaine or rally your school spirit like Courtney. But to put it simply, I can get the job done. I don't really have anything else to say. Thank you."

I turn and walk away from the podium, feeling the complete silence that fills the auditorium. _Uno, dos, tres_...One person starts clapping. Then another and another and the effect ripples throughout the rest of the auditorium like a chain reaction. Soon enough, almost everybody's on their feet, clapping and cheering. Smiling, I turn and face them, bow a few times. It may have been a little subdued, but I'm getting a more spontaneous reception than Courtney and Elaine.

Both Courtney and Elaine turn to look at me, incredulous. I look back at them, smile, and wink.

I know how to play the game.

"I can't believe you didn't win..." Heather says as she climbs into the passenger side of my truck; she's slowly been getting used to the fact that it's not as fancy as a Porsche.

I frown, feeling my eye twitch as I start the truck. "Can we just not discuss it any more?"

"She didn't even run..." Heather shakes her head. "She was a write-in candidate, didn't even give a speech, and she wasn't even here. And she won..."

"Shut up, Heather!"

This is driving me crazy. _I _should have won. I know all of the tricks of the trade, how to convince people. Never in my life have I ever lost. If Heather brings up the obvious any more today, I'm going to throttle her. It's obvious she's doing this _just_ to press my buttons. As if Jose hasn't done enough of that already.

"Geez, take a chill pill, would you?" Heather rolls her eyes.

"Kate Hernandez won. I get it." I turn and glare at her.

"I didn't bring it up this time, so stop glaring at me," Heather snaps. "Don't you need to get to work pretty soon, anyway?"

Sighing heavily, I pull out and end up bickering back and forth all the way to her mansion. As soon as I pull up into her driveway, I turn and stare at her, and she stares back at me. I really don't want to end up arguing with her into tomorrow, especially since _I'm _the one driving her to and from school at the moment. Our relationship seems to be getting more difficult now that we're past the honeymoon phase...

Heather leans over and kisses me. The last thing I expected today was her coaxing me into a make-out session right now, but I don't resist. After five minutes, she leans against my chest and runs her fingers across my bare chest, her other hand holding my shirt.

"You can always try again next year," she says, smiling. "You'll have to compete against _me _next time, though."

For some reason, I like the sound of that. I'll obviously win, but since I like having Heather this close, I just smile at her instead of saying anything.

Mom's sitting in the front row of the church in a pale blue dress, her baby bump starting to show. Next to her, Dad holds her hand and smiles. Both of them are smiling at me. With tears in her eyes, Mom, the ever sentimental one, reaches out and cups my cheek in her hand.

"This is such a big day for you!" she cries, smiling happily. "My baby boy's growing up!"

Embarrassed, I reach up and touch her hand. "I suppose..."

"Pilar's going to have an aunt!" Mom says, looking absolutely ecstatic.

I gently pull away from her and wander to the back of the church. The pews are starting to fill up and Uncle Ernesto, a famous Latin rock singer in Argentina, is warming up at the organ. Quite a few of my relatives from all over the globe are here. It's so interesting to see them all gathered in one place, considering that most of the time my parents are the family members I get to see the most often. The others are family friends and the relatives and family friends of the bride.

Of course the only person not here is Jose and I'm extremely grateful for that. He's the last person I'd want to see on a special day like this.

Speaking of people I'm not too excited about seeing, Owen and Izzy evaporate out of thin air. Owen sticks his huge meaty arm around my shoulders and Izzy persists in trying to stick a piece of duct tape to my arm. Irritated, I look up at Owen and attempt to smile. Whoever made the guest list for this event made a big mistake when they put Owen on it as a 'family friend'; a more apt term to describe him would be 'the pain in the rear that's attached himself to me like a leech since the beginning of the year.'

"Heya Al!" Owen bubbles, all happy and bouncy as usual. "I'll bet you're pretty excited, huh?"

"Yes, I am as a matter of fact," I reply and surprisingly, it's not entirely a lie.

"I can't wait for the cake!" Owen goes on. "What flavor of cake is there?"

"I'll bet it's sushi..." Izzy pipes up, playing with her duct tape.

"Sushi..." Owen starts to drool.

"There is sushi!" Izzy replies, snapping the tape. "I have one right here..." She pulls a piece of shrimp out of the sleeve of her turquoise dress. "I named him Bob! Say hi, Bob!"

"There's more sushi in the reception hall," I say, pushing Owen away before he can drool all over me. "Feel free to go get some!"

Much to my relief, he and Izzy run off in that particular direction, leaving me alone.

That's when I feel hands wrap around my neck, sending tingles down my spine.

"I wondered if I was going to find you..."

I turn around and kiss Heather on the cheek before another hand clamps down on my shoulder. When I turn to see who it is, I'm relieved to see Carlos standing there, smiling.

"Sorry to break it up, you two, but I need my best man standing by the altar pretty soon here..."

Carlos is officially married. I can't help smiling as I watch Carlos and his new fiery-haired wife dance in the middle of the floor. It really gets me, tugging at my heart strings because they're both so in love...I really did read way too many romance novels as a kid.

I sit at a table while Owen and Izzy yammer my ear off about pointless things. Out of the corner of my eye, I have to keep tabs on Izzy, though. She's been toting around that piece of shrimp since the beginning of the wedding and I really don't want her to place it on my shoulder. Right now, she's making it dance and Owen keeps begging her to let him eat it, but she keeps telling him no...

It's so stupid. They're both so childish and annoying.

I'm wishing I could find Heather...she's my date and I haven't gotten one scant minute alone with her all day. Sighing, I lean back in the chair, looking up at the ceiling since I seem to have nothing better to do. That's when I briefly glimpse Heather peering around a pillar in the great big ball room. She waves at me and gestures for me to come over, making my heart leap in my chest.

"Excuse me, I need to use the bathroom," I tell Owen and Izzy. They don't even notice since their attention is still focused on the piece of shrimp.

Quickly, I make my way across the room, around tables covered with white table cloths and couples or groups talking to each other. A few of them are shooting appalled looks at where Owen and Izzy are sitting and I can't blame them. Somehow, I'm able to get behind the pillar and my heart's racing like an off-track locomotive in my chest.

Heather looks absolutely gorgeous. She's wearing a long, elegant blue dress that hugs her body in just the right way and her hair's tied back, showing how beautiful her eyes and lips are. This is the first time I've been able to get a good look at her all day and my heart is beating as quickly as it did when I first saw her walking through the high school hallways.

We've been together for four months now and I love her so much, I feel like my heart's about to burst like a supernova in my chest. She looks up at me expectantly and smiles, tilting her head.

"Would you like to dance?" I ask her, extending my hand.

"I've been wanting to all day," she says, taking it and then dragging me out from behind the pillar.

There's a mid-tempo rhythm going with just enough of a beat for _our _dance. No cues or hints needed, we dive right into dancing a tango. After four months, Heather's become an effortless professional. With grace and ease, I love how much everything flows. There seems to be a beat of a magic moment whenever Heather looks into my eyes and her pupils are flaring with passion.

We continue for three or four minutes as the song continues to play, lost in our own individual universe. The longer we dance, the more intimate it becomes. As the song starts to come to a close, Heather drapes her arm around my neck, and wraps her leg around mine, coming in close. Our noses are touching and I can feel her warm breath on my face, feel her heart beating as fast as mine.

For a second we come back to reality and I can feel the energy of the room around us. Everybody's looking, cheering, applauding. But it fades away again quickly.

Heather and I close our eyes and then kiss. All the same sparks are there, making me explode and take off like a rocket. It's a wonderful experience and just as wonderful as the very first time. When I finally pull away, Heather and I both look at each other, entranced and _captivated_.

"Do you think we'll ever get married one day?" she asks, her eyes sparkling.

"That is a very distinct possibility," I reply.

-FIN-


End file.
